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Sunday, November 23, 2008, 01.44 AM

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DAP's old guards retain top posts

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Party adviser Lim Kit Siang garnered the most votes with a whopping 624-vote mandate out of the 739 delegates who attended the 15th triennial national congress.

His son, and party secretary-general, Lim Guan Eng came in close with 620 votes, cementing the father and son tag team.

Another family act spilling over into politics was Karpal Singh and his son Gobind Singh Deo, who secured 471 and 305 votes respectively.

Though they undoubtedly enjoy tremendous support, the two sets of fathers and sons are raising concern that the party may end up being dominated by political dynasties in the long run.

Meanwhile, the much-hyped new faces who were expected to give the old guards a run for their money were completely washed out by the delegates who still clearly had high regard for experience and loyalty.

Despite a lot of favourable opinions given on young candidates such as Jenice Lee, Hannah Yeoh, Teo Nie Ching, Jagdeep Singh, Jeff Ooi and Liew Chin Tong, only Tony Pua and Gobind managed to get enough votes to qualify for the 20 available posts.

"It does not mean that it is a complete rejection of the young candidates. It is just that the expectations were too high on them in the first place.

"They are popular in the media, but not well known among the grassroots members outside of the Klang Valley or the urban areas," said a newly-elected CEC member.

Apart from Karpal and Gobind, only two other non-Chinese members made it into the CEC, including Ahmad Ton and Prof P. Ramasamy, who were the incumbents.

The CEC convened last night for the appointment of office bearers. Under the constitution, they can co-opt up to 10 other delegates to form the party's national leadership.

Results are expected to be announced today for the final day of the congress.

Whether they give the new faces a chance to assume top party posts remained unclear.

There are many aspects to take into consideration for the CEC to appoint the remaining members into national leadership. Apart from track record in serving the community, the party leadership will have to strike a delicate balance of having the right representation in race and geographical location, as well as their preliminary voting rank.