PETALING JAYA: After being derided for his age of 71, the Barisan Nasional’s Tiong Thai King has made a comeback in the Dudong state seat by defeating his younger DAP opponent Yap Hoi Liong in a five-cornered contest.

Tiong was returned to the seat, polling 9,700 votes for a 2146-vote majority to overturn the result of the previous election. In 2011, he was defeated by Yap by just 317 votes.

Tiong was given a ovation when he arrived at the counting centre this evening with his wife and other supporters, Star Online reported.

Tiong and Yap had exchanged words in the final days of campaigning, with Tiong challenging Yap, 45, to climb Mount Kinabalu after the elections, as a test of physical fitness, in respose to Yap taking a swipe at his age, saying the older man should retire from politics.

Yap accepted the challenge on Thursday, and counter-challenged Tiong to make public details of his personal accounts and to sell all his assets for charity.

Dudong is a Chinese-majority area with 29,028 registered voters. The other candidates were Benny Lee, a former Dudong SUPP branch vice-chairman standing as an independent, Mary Ting (STAR) and Casper Kayong, another independent.

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