Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak has rubbished the study by an academician that shows BN has a better chance of recapturing Kedah from PAS in the next general election.

Azizan questioned the role of the National Council of Professors in focussing on “lame issues” that favour the BN and said it should be free of political interference.

The study on Kedahans’ political preference was done by Associate professor Rohana Yusof from Universiti Utara Malaysia, who presented the result at a forum organised by the National Council of Professors on Wednesday.

Azizan said the council should devote its attention to intellectual studies such as a cleaner election, the issue of phantom voters or how to develop the state.

“I’m disappointed because the level of thought of these professors is not much different from BN low-ranking leaders who focus on lame issues such as the menteri besar candidates,” he was quoted as saying by Malay daily Sinar Harian .

“This is something unfortunate because the intellectual group should study issues that are more serious.”

Azizan was among Pakatan Rakyat leaders quoted by the daily as questioning the study, while state opposition leaders lauded the findings as accurate.

Rohana had reportedly said that the findings were based a survey between November 2011 until February 2012 involving 10,800 Kedahans, or 300 people picked at random from each polling district.

NONE She found that 54 percent of the respondents felt that the PAS-led government should not be maintained, and that there was overwhelming support for Jerlun MP Mukhriz Mahathir ( right in photo ) to be Azizan’s successor.

However, a separate and smaller study also presented at the roundtable by Associate Professor Fuad Mohd Jali from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia found that 50.7 percent of Kedahans would still vote for PAS.