Harapan-BN's Malay support in S'gor outpaces PN's: Survey

A survey by Selangor government think tank Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE) found that when asked to choose between Perikatan Nasional (PN) and BN-Pakatan Harapan, the latter led in Malay support in the state.

Out of 978 Malay respondents in the survey, IDE found that 47.6 percent favoured the BN-Harapan pact, 27.2 percent supported PN, and 14.5 percent were undecided.

The survey conducted from May 12 to 15 this year was randomly stratified across the 56 state constituencies in Selangor. The survey comprised all races and involved a total of 1,692 respondents.

Each respondent was met face-to-face and keyed in their responses through IDE’s e-Survey application on a tablet.

Based on IDE’s 15th general election (GE15) data, PN was consistently the top choice for Malays in Selangor aged 18 to 60 years old.

Despite being the top choice, the state opposition coalition’s popularity among Malays in each group during GE15 was below 50 percent.

This indicated that with the combined support of the BN and Harapan coalitions, the BN-Harapan pact could come out ahead in Malay votes during the upcoming state election.

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Overall, 58 percent of the 1,692 respondents favoured the BN-Harapan pact, 26 percent of respondents were on the fence, and 16 percent preferred PN.

Youths aged 18 to 24 years old comprised 267 (15.8 percent) of the total 1,692 respondents. Of these youths, 50 percent supported BN-Harapan, 33 percent were on the fence, and 17 percent favoured PN.

IDE chairperson Mohammad Redzuan Othman said despite what looks like a strong majority for Harapan, the true outcome lies in fence-sitters.

He said 33 percent of fence-sitters could swing votes to largely favour the state opposition.

However, he said the true trend of where the votes will lie can only be seen on the second week of campaigning - four to five days before polling day.

Nomination day for candidates in the upcoming state elections is on July 19, while polling day is on Aug 12.

Mixed response to PN

Meanwhile, Redzuan added that Selangor voters indicated mixed responses towards PN with 47.4 percent of respondents having a negative perception, 41.1 percent positive, and 11.5 percent with no comment.

The survey found 28.4 percent of Selangor respondents felt PN tended to play racial sentiments in the election period, while 22.1 percent felt the coalition championed the Malays and Islam.

On the other hand, 74.1 percent of respondents had a positive perception of Harapan, while 19.9 percent had a negative perception, and six percent had no comment.

The survey also found that 69.7 percent of respondents had a positive perception of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s leadership.

Meanwhile, 22.8 percent of respondents believed Anwar will be able to fulfil the Malaysia Madani concept and bring the country to greater heights while 16.5 percent felt he is capable of uniting the various races and improving the cost of living, and 13.9 percent believed he is capable of combating corruption and abuse of power.

However, 18 percent of respondents held a negative perception of Anwar, believing the Harapan chairperson is unable to repair the economy, does not champion the Malay and Islamic community, and is unfit to be prime minister due to being a former convict.

Redzuan said Anwar's popularity improved recently following engagements in Selangor and local universities, adding that the state’s close proximity to Putrajaya is an advantage.

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