It appears to be a neck-to-neck race between Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim in a poll on who should be prime minister.

At about 8.30pm, the jailed former opposition leader had a slight edge with 49 percent of the votes over his nemesis who secured 46 percent after some 5,000 having made their choice.

Trailing far behind the two with five percent was Najib Abdul Razak in the poll on the BebasAnwar Twitter account, which provided respondents with only three choices.

The poll closes at 4pm tomorrow.

Netizens responding to the poll however appeared to want a fresh face, after growing tired of the same personalities dominating the political scene for decades.

Twitter user zulshafik put it bluntly that "all three are not suitable candidates."

Some commentators however felt that Anwar, who is serving a five-year jail sentence, would be more suitable for the role of an advisor to the prime minister.

"Based on Anwar's condition, it’s better if he was an advisor.

“I pick (Pandan MP) Rafizi (Ramli), let a youth lead the country like in Canada," said a Twitter user with the handle sayaQayyim.

A poll by Merdeka Center in October last year found overall support for Najib's government was at an all time low of 23 percent, with Malay support, which is meant to be Umno’s core vote bank, at just 31 percent.

Mahathir meanwhile had on Monday quit Umno to protest the prime minister's leadership and is appearing to align himself with opposition forces in order to oust Najib.

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Siapakah pemimpin yang layak/patut menjadi Perdana Menteri Malaysia?

— #BebasAnwar (@BebasAnwar) March 2, 2016