GEORGE TOWN, March 3 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) accepts the failure of its candidate in defending the Semenyih seat in the constituency’s by-election yesterday.

Its deputy president Lim Guan Eng described the result as the right and voice of the people in selecting their representative in the area.

"I accept the result from the people. This is the people’s right and voice. The expectation is Barisan Nasional (BN) is seen going to fulfil their promises. The expectation is that they will fulfill the promises and statements made in the by-election.

"For PH, we will continue to unite the people,” he told reporters after participating in "I Love Penang Run” here today.

In the by-election, Barisan Nasional (BN) recaptured the Semenyih state seat when its candidate, Zakaria Hanafi won the four cornered-contest with a majority of 1,914 votes.

In another development, when commenting on the expose by political analyst Raja Petra Kamaruddin on a leak of investigation papers involving the Penang undersea tunnel implicating Lim and several senior DAP leaders, the Finance Minister said the claims were baseless and it is a lie.

Lim who was also the former Penang Chief Minister said it is public knowledge that Penang practises the open tender concept and there is no possibility for any elements of corruption.

"This is a lie. PAS Information chief Nasruddin Hassan had earlier made this allegation against me and I suit him. He withdrew his statement and expressed his regrets and paid me RM10,000.

"This is clearly a fraud which was brought up to tarnish my name and several DAP leaders or even the Penang state government and PH. I am very clear when Penang practises the open tender, incidents of corruption will not occur,” he said.

Raja Petra in the Malaysia Today portal earlier exposed several articles showing the investigation papers of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel project in Penang.

Based on the articles, several former Penang Exco members were also named in the documents. — Bernama