Najib still top choice as next prime minister — survey

KUALA LUMPUR: A latest survey showed that Datuk Seri Najib Razak is still the top choice to be the next prime minister.

Najib obtained 31 per cent of the votes from 17,962 voters while his key political rival Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim only scored eight per cent support.

In the latest survey by a PKR-linked outfit, the Invoke Centre for Policy Initiatives, 5,568 respondents chose the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman when given 10 names to pick from as the country’s next prime minister.

While the survey data showed Anwar as the most popular out of all nine Opposition leaders listed for the top post, the 1,462 voters who named him translated as a whole to eight per cent.

Other Opposition leaders in terms of popularity as the next PM are PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang with 6.1 per cent out of 17,962 voters, followed by Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (5.7 per cent).

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (4.4 per cent), PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli (3.7 per cent), PPBM deputy president Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir (2.9 per cent), PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (1.6 per cent), PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali (1.2 per cent) and PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar (0.9 per cent).

Out of the 17,962 nationwide respondents interviewed through randomised phone calls determined by a computer system, about 34 per cent or 6,172 did not answer on who they would want to be the prime minister.

Invoke’s principal Rafizi, who presented the findings, attributed Anwar’s popularity over other Opposition politicians for the PM post to the latter’s appeal that cuts across all ethnic groups.

Hadi emerged as the top choice among Malays surveyed, at 29 per cent, followed by Dr Mahathir (18 per cent), Muhyiddin (15 per cent), Anwar (14 per cent), Mukhriz (12 per cent), Rafizi (6 per cent), Azmin (4 per cent), Dr Wan Azizah (1 per cent) while Nurul Izzah received no mention.

On the other hand, Anwar was the most popular choice for PM among the ethnic Chinese at 35 per cent, followed by Rafizi (19 per cent), Dr Mahathir and Dr Wan Azizah both at 12 per cent, Muhyiddin (9 per cent), Nurul Izzah (7 per cent), while Azmin and Mukhriz tied at 3 per cent each. None within this racial demographic chose Hadi.

Anwar was also the clear favourite among ethnic Indians at 68 per cent, followed by Muhyiddin (15 per cent), Rafizi (7 per cent), Dr Mahathir tied with his son Mukhriz at 4 per cent, Azmin at 2 per cent and the rest received no mentions.

In a previous similar survey by PPBM carried out between July and August last year, Muhyiddin was the top choice to be PM at 37.3 per cent of the 2,881 polled, followed by Dr Mahathir (35.9 per cent), Hadi (34.3 per cent), Mukhriz (32 per cent), then PAS youth chief Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz (30.8 per cent). Anwar was in the sixth place at 27 per cent.

The PPBM survey done through faceto-face interviews involved 17 politicians from seven political parties, namely Amanah, DAP, PAS, PKR, PPBM, Umno and Parti Warisan Sabah.

The PPBM survey respondents’ ethnic composition is reportedly Malay (67.6 per cent), Chinese (23 per cent), Indians (5.6 per cent) and Sabah and Sarawak natives (3.7 per cent).

In the two-question Invoke survey, the first question all respondents were asked was whether or not they agreed with what Najib was doing as the prime minister.

In the measure of satisfaction with Najib’s performance, those who agreed and disagreed was equally split at 44 per cent each, while 12 per cent said they did not know.

Among all the Chinese and Indian respondents polled, the same trend was reflected.

For the Malay respondents, 49 per cent said they agreed while 39 per cent disagreed.

Rafizi said the Invoke survey has a margin error of 2 per cent, with the computer system ensuring phone calls were made to be representative of the country’s voter distribution according to gender, ethnicity, age and state.

The 17,962 respondents were largely Malay at 12,114 or 68 per cent, followed by the Chinese at 2,710 (15 per cent), Indians at 1,674 (9 per cent), Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputera at 1,464 or 8 per cent.