Anwar expected to win, gets majority support
PORT DICKSON: A study by the Institute Darul Ehsan ( IDE) found that 74 per cent of the voters tend to choose Pakatan Harapan ( PH) candidate Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim compared to six other candidates for the Port Dickson by- election which will be held today.
IDE deputy chairman Prof Datuk Dr Mohammad Redzuan Othman said the study was conducted on 1,084 respondents, who were voters in the Port Dickson Parliamentary constituency, on Monday and Tuesday.
He said most of them chose Anwar because the PKR presidentelect would be the eighth prime minister.
“On the day of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s nomination, 40 per cent (voters) say it will vote for Anwar Ibrahim as he is set to be the eighth prime minister.
“We saw at that time the extent of public acceptance (for Anwar), we can conclude that in general the Port Dickson community can accept him as a candidate,” he said in a press conference here.
He said based on the same study, PAS candidate Lt Col ( R) Mohd Nazari Mokhtar received 11 per cent followed by independent candidate Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad (10 per cent) and four other independent candidates each received only one per cent support in Port Dickson.
Mohammad Redzuan said PAS’s work was only concentrated in the Malay areas, namely, in the Linggi and Bagan Pinang state constituencies.
Meanwhile, the Chinese and Indian-majority constituencies in Chuah and Lukut were not given much attention which would likely result in the party’s candidate not getting the support of the two communities, he said.
The Port Dickson parliamentary constituency has 77,750 voters comprising 43 per cent Malay voters, 33 per cent Chinese, 22 per cent Indian and others (two per cent).
The by- election wi l l see a seven- cornered fight involving Anwar, PAS candidate Lt Col ( R) Mohd Nazari Mokhtar and five independent candidates including former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad and Anwar’s former personal assistant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
The parl iamentary seat was vacated by Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah on Sept 12, to allow Anwar, who recently won unopposed the post of PKR president, to contest and return to the Dewan Rakyat. — Bernama