Surprises at Penang DAP polls as underdogs rise up

Chow Kon Yeow (right) takes a seat at the Penang DAP convention today. At left is party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

GEORGE TOWN: It was a mixed bag of surprises at the Penang DAP elections today, as veteran party leaders dominated the top three positions, while another member of the Lim Kit Siang family came close at fourth place.

The incumbent secretary, Lim Hui Ying, was expected to finish in the top three. However, she came in at fourth place, as before.

Chow Kon Yeow, the incumbent state chairman, polled the highest at 1,211 votes. His polling numbers had steadily dropped from 2015 and today’s results marked a sharp increase as Chow enters his fifth term as state chief, a position he has held since 1999.

More than twice the number of delegates (1,608) voted this year compared to the 793 at the previous state elections in 2018. The voting turnout was 76.5% of 2,101 eligible delegates. There were 56 spoilt votes.

Phee Boon Poh, who entered politics together with Chow in 1990, finished second at 1,041 votes. Phee’s votes also mark a sharp rise from 442 votes in 2018. In third place is party veteran Lay Hock Peng, with 1,038 votes. Lay is the chief minister’s coordinating officer for the Kepala Batas parliamentary constituency.

Big jump for Zairil, Ramasamy and Rayer

The biggest increases were recorded by Zairil Khir Johari and P Ramasamy, who both did not make the top 15 finishers in 2018. They were in fifth and ninth position with 920 votes and 826 votes respectively.

In 2018, Zairil polled 328 and Ramasamy garnered 303, placing them among the lower 16-25 ranks.

Perhaps the biggest losers are the Singh brothers with Jagdeep Singh Deo garnering only 655 votes. In 2018, he obtained 468 votes which placed him in the second rank out of 40 candidates then.

Jagdeep is currently in 15th place, while his brother Ramkarpal Singh did not make it to the top 15. Ramkarpal garnered 575 votes this year. In 2018, he finished in sixth place with 439 votes.