Voters in Selangor's Malay belt are still loyal supporters of BN under Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's administration, despite being aware of the 1MDB controversies.

This is one of the findings of a statewide survey by Selangor government think-tank Institute Darul Ehsan (IDE), said its deputy chairperson Mohammad Redzuan Othman.

"For the Malay voters from the Malay belt who are aware of 1MDB, for them, under whatever circumstances, they will still support BN.

"Their justification is that it doesn't affect Malaysia because they can still get their pay, they can still buy food and live in relative comfort," said Redzuan during a presentation of the survey's results at Carlton Holiday Hotel in Shah Alam today.

Redzuan cited Sabak Bernam, Tanjung Karang, and Ulu Selangor as examples of constituencies that fall under the Malay belt in Selangor.

Their survey, which was conducted from 26 to 30 August, showed that 29 percent of their respondents believed that BN can remain the incumbent federal government under Najib's leadership.

However, Redzuan pointed out that 40 percent of those BN supporters also believed that the government should take legal action against Malaysian Official 1 (MO1), the individual named multiple times in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) civil forfeiture suit related to 1MDB.

The DOJ civil suit, which was filed in August, seeks to forfeit more than US$1 billion assets believed to have been purchased using misappropriated funds from 1MDB.

MOI was officially confirmed to be Najib by Putrajaya.

Najib had also consistently denied all wrongdoing in matters related to 1MDB, including the issue of RM2.6 billion which was deposited in his bank account.

He had claimed it was a donation from the Middle East, which was corroborated by the attorney-general later, who also cleared him of all wrongdoing.

On the issue of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the survey also revealed that 55 percent of BN supporters among their respondents did not believe that GST was necessary as part of the country's income.

Only 34 percent of the BN supporters supported the continued implementation of GST, while 11 percent were unsure.

Redzuan added that on a whole, 66 percent of their survey respondents said the implementation of GST and the rising costs of goods contributed to increasing support for Pakatan Harapan.

"So maybe the opposition should support the continued implementation of GST," he joked.