GE14 | Pakatan Harapan has gained significant ground among Malay voters during the second half of April according to the latest survey and election results modeling exercise for Peninsular Malaysia by Merdeka Centre.

The pollster put Harapan's Malay support at 27.8 percent as of yesterday, up from 20 percent as of April 9.

Harapan only made minor inroads in trying to erode BN's Malay support, reducing it from 53 percent to 51.2 percent.

Harapan's gains could be attributed to a swing away from PAS. The pollster estimated that Malay support for PAS has dropped from 27 percent to 20.9 percent over the same period.

Merdeka Centre said Harapan was now only short of 6.2 points, in terms of Malay support, to gain 100 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, an improvement over the 14 percent shortfall recorded on April 9.

This is assuming that its Chinese and Indian support for the coalition remain unchanged at 85 percent and 54 percent respectively.

It is noteworthy that while Harapan's Chinese support increased marginally from 85 percent to 85.3 percent in the same period, Indian support had declined slightly from 54 percent to 50.8 percent, according to the pollster.

Merdeka Centre executive director Ibrahim Suffian said the Malay swing likely happened after nomination day on April 28. This was the time when voters finally got to know who were the candidates.

Ibrahim presented the findings at the Ikmas-Merdeka Centre seminar series on the 14th general election - "The Battleground States".

Even though a 7.8 percent boost in Malay support over two weeks may be impressive, the opposition coalition now has exactly one week left before polling on May 9 to increase Malay support by another 6.2 points.

Should Harapan be able to win 100 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, it would only need another 12 parliamentary seats from East Malaysia to form a federal government by a simple majority.