malaymail.com | 02-Sept-2020 – KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — The ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) alliance is approved by over half of Malaysians surveyed last month by independent pollster Merdeka Center.
Conversely, it found positive reception for the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition to be only at 25 per cent.
“Among the contemporary coalitions and political parties in Malaysia, PN is enjoying the highest positive perception from the voters today.
“More than half or 51 per cent of the respondents view it positively and only 27 per cent feel negatively,” said Merdeka Center programme director Ibrahim Suffian of the Bersatu-Barisan Nasional-PAS government.
“On the other hand, the positive view of Muafakat Nasional (MN) is only 37 per cent and the number is slightly lower than its component parties Barisan Nasional (BN) 40 per cent and PAS 39 per cent.
“Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, which has expressed to join MN recently, only scored 28 per cent positive views and 39 per cent are negative,” Ibrahim added.
PH consisting of DAP, PKR and Amanah scored the highest negative rating at 52 per cent.
Besides that, the Merdeka Center survey found 60 per cent of Malay voters backed PPBM’s inclusion in MN.
It found 65 per cent of Malays polled prefer Umno to be in PN, but 25 per cent think otherwise.
Similarly, the pollster said 68 per cent of Malay voters prefer PAS to be part of PN.
The Merdeka Center survey polled 3,415 voters between July 15 July and August 10, asking them about issues like the country’s economy, government and political leadership and other current issues.
Merdeka Center said the respondents comprised 52 per cent Malay, 29 per cent ethnic Chinese, 7 per cent ethnic Indian and 6 per cent other Muslim Bumiputera from Sabah and Sarawak.