Machap by-election, 2007

The 2007 Machap by-election was held on 12 April 2007. The seat in the state assembly of Malacca, Malaysia, fell vacant after the incumbent, Datuk Wira Poh Ah Tiam of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), died on 15 March that year. On 21 March 2007, the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC) announced 3 April 2007 as the nomination day and 12 April 2007 the election date. The MCA candidate, Lai Meng Chong eventually defeated the opposition candidate of Liou Chen Kuang, with a reduced majority compared to the previous 2004 election.

State assembly seat N.08 Machap lies in parliamentary seat P.135 Alor Gajah. As of the 2004 General Elections, Machap was a majority Chinese seat (45.6%), followed by Malays (38.3%), Indians (15.3%) and others (0.7%). In the 2004 election, the late Datuk Wira Poh Ah Tiam of the MCA, a component party of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, garnered 5,847 votes, defeating Liou Chen Kuang of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) (1,285 votes) by a majority of 4,562 votes.

The English language daily The Star reported on 17 March 2007 that the opposition People's Justice Party (PKR) was the first to express interest in contesting the seat, with its information chief Tian Chua as the likely candidate. Meanwhile, on 20 March 2007, the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) declared it would not field a candidate in the by-election, citing the fact that the seat has traditionally been a DAP versus BN contest. The DAP and the ruling BN declined to comment on their plans until after Poh's funeral on 21 March 2007.

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