KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — Lim Kit Siang will be a backbencher in Parliament for the first time in almost 50 years since 1969, with Anthony Loke appointed as the DAP parliamentary leader in the 14th Parliament.

The Iskandar Puteri MP had, during a speech in Cameron Highlands last night, announced the decision on the appointment of Loke, who is DAP’s national organising secretary and transport minister.

"The DAP central executive committee has decided the parliamentary leader in the 14th parliament will be Anthony Loke,” Lim said in his speech.

"By convention, the prime minister is the leader of the House of Parliament, and in a governing coalition, the respective party parliamentary leaders will come from the senior party leaders,” added the DAP veteran.

Lim was first elected Kota Melaka MP in 1969. He served as the Parliamentary Opposition Leader from 1974 to 1999 and from 2004 to 2008.

He was DAP secretary-general from 1969 to 1999, while his son Guan Eng has been holding the post since 2004.

Lim also announced DAP’s new "front line states”, identified as Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, and Perlis.

The party veteran said new party branches, some Orang Asli and some Malaysian-Thai, were formed during his visits to the states over the past few days.

"The objective is to ensure that these four states will also be governed by Pakatan Harapan (PH) as is presently the case with the federal government of Malaysia.

"In this objective we will work closely with the other three PH parties.”