Neither BN nor the array of opposition parties can convincingly capture the votes of Malay youth, said PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli.

Rafizi, who is also PKR vice-president, said this is according to a research he put together.

The research found that staunch supporters of BN among Malay youth only comprise 5.5 percent.

Staunch supporters were defined as voters who have more than a 50 percent tendency to vote for a particular party regardless of whether there are multi-cornered fights.

The second worse was DAP, which only had 16.2 percent of Malay youth voters who were more than 50 percent inclined to vote for the party regardless of circumstances.

This was followed by Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) (23.2 percent), Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) (26.9 percent), PAS (35.5 percent) and PKR (48.3 percent).

He explained that PKR received the higher percentage because it was not affected by internal split like Amanah, PAS and Bersatu which diluted their support base.

The survey was conducted online among 746 respondents, 95 percent of whom are Malays and five percent are non-Malays.

He said while some may dispute the accuracy of the survey due to the sample size and where it was conducted, the point was to observe the trends.

"I stand by the view that no parties can truly get the Malay youth votes.

"Even if there are multi-cornered fights, Umno will not necessarily get an easy win as the percentage of support to Umno is very low," he said.

He said this trend can be a guide in trying to negotiate one-on-one contest in the general election.

He added that in order to overcome the differing Malay youth support towards opposition parties, particular Pakatan Harapan, efforts should be made to unite them under one logo.

"This is because it is clear that when each parties use their separate image, they attract different percentage of support," he said.