He said Manogaran was the ideal candidate to contest the seat under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) ticket as he had been working with the constituents since 2013.
“Despite losing the seat twice, he is hard-working and dedicated. We are recommending Manogaran for the seat but the final decision is with the party headquarters,” he told FMT.
PH chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on Dec 8, said a DAP candidate would be fielded since the party had contested the seat in the 14th general election.
Last month, the Election Court revoked Barisan Nasional’s victory in the May 9 general election after it found that money was used during the campaign to buy votes.
MIC’s C Sivarraajh, who won the seat, said he would not challenge the election court’s decision, adding that BN would fight for the cause of the people in a by-election rather than going to the Federal Court.
Sivarraajh had won the seat with a 567-vote majority against Manoharan.
Sivarraajh polled 10,307 votes, Manogaran garnered 9,710, PAS’ Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud polled 3,587, Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s B Suresh Kumar pulled 680, and Berjasa candidate Mohd Tahir Kassim drew 81 votes.
Manogaran filed a petition in June seeking a declaration that the GE14 results for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary election are null and void as Sivarraajh had violated the Election Offences Act 1954 by bribing voters among the Orang Asli community in the constituency.
Manogaran, who won the Teluk Intan parliamentary seat in the 12th general election in 2008, had contested in Cameron Highlands during the 13th general election. He lost to former MIC president G Palanivel.
Leong, who was a former Tanah Rata assemblyman for a term until the recent general election, said DAP activated its election machinery after the Election Commission (EC) last week announced the nomination and polling dates.
“Whoever is the candidate, all PH component parties will have to coordinate their activities and programmes to win the seat for the coalition,” he said.
The EC said there are a total of 32,009 registered voters, including 247 early voters and 12 absentee voters. There are also 385 disabled voters.
Ngah said 39% are Malay voters, 28% Chinese, 22% Indians and 11%Orang Asli.