reuters.com | KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s opposing political blocs will need to form an alliance to stand a chance of governing after this month’s general election, with none likely to win a simple majority, an opinion poll showed on Friday.
There are 21 million Malaysians eligible to vote on Nov. 19, with opposition leaders Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim, and former premier Muhyiddin Yassin competing to unseat a government led by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri’s Barisan Nasional.
The Merdeka Center’s Oct 19-28 survey of 1,209 people showed 24% of voters preferred Barisan, while 26% favoured Anwar’s main opposition bloc Pakatan Harapan. Nearly a third – or 31% – were undecided or had no preference.
About 13% supported Muhyiddin’s opposition bloc, while 2% favoured former premier Mahathir’s newly-formed alliance.
Since the last election in 2018, Malaysia has had three prime ministers as parties governed with razor-thin and unstable majorities.
Barisan lost for the first time in Malaysian history in 2018 following a multi-billion-dollar scandal at state investment fund 1MDB that plagued its ruling UMNO party, which prioritises interests of the ethnic-Malay majority.
Barisan is seeing lower than expected support among Malays and has not gained significant ground since 2018, Merdeka Center said. The poll showed the economy and inflation were top concerns of respondents, ahead of political instability and corruption.