Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem's popularity is at record high with an approval rating of 81 percent, up from 74 percent in April 2015.

However, a majority of Sarawak voters want to see a stronger opposition in the state.

According to a survey by Merdeka Center, 56 percent of respondents support a stronger opposition in Sarawak while 32 percent disagreed and 12 percent were unsure.

The poll surveyed 815 voters in Sarawak between Jan 20 and Jan 26 comprising 38 percent non-Muslim bumiputera, 36 percent Chinese and 27 percent Muslim bumiputera.

On top of Adenan's record high popularity, dissatisfaction against the Sarawak chief minister had also fallen from 13 percent in April 2015 to 10 percent in January this year.

Nonetheless, Adenan's numbers is a far cry from his predecessor Mohamad Taib Mahmud who in December 2013 only had a 42 percent approval rating and another 47 percent being dissatisfied.

The support for Adenan came across all communities, with 90 percent of Muslim bumiputera supporting him, followed by 85 percent non-Muslim bumiputera and 71 percent Chinese.

His popularity is likely due to three in four voters in Sarawak, or 75 percent, saw Adenan as a bringer of change in the state.

Only 18 percent thought that nothing had changed while seven percent was unsure.

Among the most popular of changes named by respondents was Adenan's move to abolish tolls in the state. It was cited by 33 percent of all respondents.

Other notable changes cited were new infrastructure (18 percent), addressing illegal logging (13 percent), social welfare (11 percent), education (eight percent), economy (seven percent), anti-corruption (seven percent), development (six percent), road improvement (five percent) and cheaper electricity (four percent).

However, approval rating for his government is down slightly from 68 percent in April 2015 to 62 percent in January.

Dissatisfaction with the Sarawak government had also risen from 25 percent to 33 percent in the same period.

Lacklustre rating for opposition

However, the approval rating for the opposition's performance did not fare much better.

Only 36 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the performance of the Sarawak opposition, 47 percent were dissatisfied and 17 percent were unsure.

The majority of its support was derived from the Chinese community at 49 percent compared to 36 percent who were dissatisfied.

However, only 30 percent of non-Muslim bumiputera and 25 percent of Muslim bumiputera approved of the opposition's performance.

51 percent of non-Muslim bumiputera and 54 percent of Muslim bumiputera were dissatisfied with the opposition's performance.

The poll also surveyed the approval rating of Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian and Sarawak DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen but many were unsure about the two leaders.

36 percent of respondents were satisfied with Chong's performance compared to 27 who were dissatisfied but 35 percent were unsure.

When broken down by ethnicity, 62 percent of Chinese support Chong, followed by 26 percent of non-Muslim bumiputera and 17 percent of Muslim bumiputera.

As for Baru Bian, 31 percent were satisfied with his performance while 27 percent were dissatisfied, and 40 percent were unsure.

Going by ethnicity, Baru enjoyed 40 percent support from non-Muslim bumiputera followed by 29 percent Muslim bumiputera and 24 percent Chinese.

The survey had a 3.43 percent margin of error.