Perak DAP chairman Nga Kor Ming will be leaving Taiping and contesting in Teluk Intan in the 14th General Election (GE14).
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng made the announcement at an opposition political rally in Teluk Intan last night which saw a large crowd turning up.
“The DAP candidate for Teluk Intan is not a Datuk but he has experience and is willing to work hard for Malaysia.
“Let him do more for the people of Teluk Intan,” Lim said.
Nga, a two-term federal lawmaker who is a lawyer by training, described himself as not being rich.
“I am only the grandson of a rubber tapper and the son of a teacher.
“The Barisan Nasional candidate is wealthy and holds a high position, but I believe the people are behind us,” Nga said, in reference to Mah who is plantation industries and commodities minister.
Also present at the ‘ceramah’ were DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Parti Amanah Negara president Mohamad Sabu.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was listed as the final speaker, was eventually a no-show.
He had a hectic weekend in Langkawi and was unable to make it. But he appeared in a video recording lending support to Nga.
Nga, who is also DAP deputy secretary-general and incumbent Taiping MP, will face off with incumbent Teluk Intan MP Datuk Seri Mah Siew Kong, who is also president of Barisan Nasional (BN) component party Gerakan.
Mah first contested the Teluk Intan seat in 1999 and successfully defended it in 2004.
However, he lost in his next two outings to DAP in 2008 and 2013.
He managed to recapture it in a by-election in May 2014 after the seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent Seah Leong Peng from DAP, who had beat Mah with a 7,313 majority during GE13.
The by-election saw Mah edging DAP’s Dyana Sofia Mohd Daud with a razor-thin majority of 238 votes.
Teluk Intan has about 61,000 voters, 41% of whom are Malays, 40% Chinese and 19% Indians.
Nga is now the second DAP big gun to take on a BN leader, after Johor DAP chief Liew Chin Tong, who will take on MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong.
At the ‘ceramah’, the controversial politician with a penchant for crude jokes also sang his anti-GST song, in both Malay and Mandarin.
“Every night, you must sing this song. Even when you meet your boyfriend or girlfriend, you must sing this song.
“Hapus GST, Hapus GST, Undi Harapan,” Nga sang, after speaking on the goods and services tax, which the opposition plans to abolish within 100 days of it wresting Putrajaya from BN.