Lim Guan Eng out as DAP chairman: Anthony Loke consolidates power but faces fresh challenges
DAP’s internal leadership polls signal a potential turning point for the party, say analysts. They however add that the younger leaders now helming the party will have their work cut out for them
DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke (centre) speaking at a press conference after voting concludes for the party's central executive committee on Mar 16, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Fadza Ishak)
Rashvinjeet S Bedi
17 Mar 2025 10:14PM
(Updated: 18 Mar 2025 08:42AM)
KUALA LUMPUR: A significant “generational change” within the Democratic Action Party (DAP) leadership emerged after its internal polls over the weekend, with the results showing a consolidation of power for Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke, said analysts.
They added that the new leadership team would now have to prove its mettle: To at least retain its current 40 federal parliamentary seats or better its showing at the next general election which has to be held before February 2028.
Meanwhile, one of the party’s former leaders - who is now an academic - believes that the diminished role of former chairman Lim Guan Eng would make the party more palatable for Malay voters. Lim was voted out of his previous position at Sunday’s (Mar 16) election and was instead made party adviser.
Even so, observers say that the DAP - which garners the most votes from non-Malay voters among Malaysian political parties - would need to open up the party to more non-Chinese, and especially Malays, in order to attract the Malay vote.
A total of 70 candidates had initially submitted their names to contest for 30 positions in the party’s central executive committee (CEC). But on Saturday, six had dropped out of the race for a spot in the party’s top decision-making body.
Some 3,343 delegates or almost 80 per cent of the 4,203 eligible delegates from 1,650 branches had participated in the vote for the CEC at the DAP party congress that was held in Selangor.
Lim secured the 26th most votes - down from eighth in the last party polls in 2022 - to retain a place in the CEC.
But a subsequent CEC vote saw him lose his post as chairman of the party, with Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, 51, taking over the role. Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying - who is also Lim’s younger sister and the daughter of firebrand retired politician Lim Kit Siang - lost her CEC position.
The Lim family has long dominated the DAP - a breakaway political institution of Singapore’s People’s Action Party.
Loke, 47, retained his post as the party’s secretary-general.
Lim Guan Eng, 64, was DAP’s secretary-general for 17 years until 2022 when he handed the reins over to Loke and became chairman.
Before that, Lim Kit Siang was the party’s secretary-general for 30 years until 1999 and then chairman for another five, before retiring from politics in 2022.
While the secretary-general is the most powerful position in the party, the DAP chairman wields clout because that person leads a panel of leaders who determine candidates that will stand under the party’s ticket in the national polls and state assembly elections.
KUALA LUMPUR: A significant “generational change” within the Democratic Action Party (DAP) leadership emerged after its internal polls over the weekend, with the results showing a consolidation of power for Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke, said analysts.
They added that the new leadership team would now have to prove its mettle: To at least retain its current 40 federal parliamentary seats or better its showing at the next general election which has to be held before February 2028.
Meanwhile, one of the party’s former leaders - who is now an academic - believes that the diminished role of former chairman Lim Guan Eng would make the party more palatable for Malay voters. Lim was voted out of his previous position at Sunday’s (Mar 16) election and was instead made party adviser.
Even so, observers say that the DAP - which garners the most votes from non-Malay voters among Malaysian political parties - would need to open up the party to more non-Chinese, and especially Malays, in order to attract the Malay vote.
A total of 70 candidates had initially submitted their names to contest for 30 positions in the party’s central executive committee (CEC). But on Saturday, six had dropped out of the race for a spot in the party’s top decision-making body.
Some 3,343 delegates or almost 80 per cent of the 4,203 eligible delegates from 1,650 branches had participated in the vote for the CEC at the DAP party congress that was held in Selangor.
Lim secured the 26th most votes - down from eighth in the last party polls in 2022 - to retain a place in the CEC.
But a subsequent CEC vote saw him lose his post as chairman of the party, with Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, 51, taking over the role. Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying - who is also Lim’s younger sister and the daughter of firebrand retired politician Lim Kit Siang - lost her CEC position.
The Lim family has long dominated the DAP - a breakaway political institution of Singapore’s People’s Action Party.
Loke, 47, retained his post as the party’s secretary-general.
Lim Guan Eng, 64, was DAP’s secretary-general for 17 years until 2022 when he handed the reins over to Loke and became chairman.
Before that, Lim Kit Siang was the party’s secretary-general for 30 years until 1999 and then chairman for another five, before retiring from politics in 2022.
While the secretary-general is the most powerful position in the party, the DAP chairman wields clout because that person leads a panel of leaders who determine candidates that will stand under the party’s ticket in the national polls and state assembly elections.
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