Umno only has an average of 40 percent support from the Malays at present, according to PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli.

This is based on three surveys conducted since last December by his Invoke Centre for Policy Initiatives (I-CPI) on the support for each party in the context of three-cornered fights and candidates for the prime minister's post.

In the last general election, Rafizi said Umno won 58 percent of Malay votes when the party faced PAS candidates and secured 60 to 63 percent Malay votes in battles with PKR candidates.

When faced with DAP candidates, he said Malay support for Umno was at 70 percent.

"I have no doubt now that Umno's support (among the Malays) has split," he added.

Umno had barely nine months ago, defended both the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar parliamentary seats by securing 60 percent Malay votes in three-cornered fights with PAS and Amanah, he pointed out. 

"Umno won big because they had 60 percent Malay votes. So, 40 percent is really low."

BN won Sungai Besar with 9,191 majority votes and Kuala Kangsar with 6,969 majority, at the twin by-elections on June 18, 2016.

According to Rafizi, Invoke had surveyed 104,000 respondents on the three-cornered fight issue, while it plans to get 10,000 respondents for the other surveys. 

The support for the Pakatan Harapan-Bersatu combo from Malay voters varied from state to state, he said, pointing out that the support of Chinese and Indian voters were equally important.

The latest electoral roll shows that of the new voters aged below 30, only 13 percent and five percent were Chinese and Indians, respectively. 

If Chinese support in the coming election could be boosted to 80 percent, Rafizi said, Harapan-Bersatu would win an extra 27 parliamentary seats.

 

Based on this simulation and study, he announced that Invoke will embark on series of programmes to boost new voters registration. 

"From March 6 onwards, Invoke will call two million people who appear in our data, but are yet to register as voters. 

"If they choose to receive automatic reminders, they will get a call every week until they register as voters," he said.

The interactive voice response mechanism would be recorded in four languages and through it, Invoke aims to get at least 100,000 new voters to register, Rafizi added. 

Other steps the centre would take include mobilising volunteers on a large scale at 30 marginal seats, and helping people who are facing problems with their voter registration process.