November 16th, 2022, Fiona Robinson
Voters were also polled on their impressions of political leaders; top issues this election; and main news sources for political news
Latest polling from YouGov indicates that this Saturday’s Malaysian General Election is unlikely to produce a clear winner, although Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan is most likely to with the largest share of the votes (35%).
Perikatan Nasional, a coalition of former PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s party and PAS, are set to pick up 20% of the vote, with incumbent Prime Minister Dato' Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob’s Barisan Nasional trailing on 17%.
APAC Head of Public Affairs and Polling at YouGov, Dr Campbell White, said, “While Pakatan Harapan is likely to perform well in urban parts of Malaysia, the substantially lower number of voters required to win a seat in rural electorates where Barisan Nasional and Perikatan Nasional are likely to perform well means that the parliament is likely to be very complex.”
“That is not even taking into account the states of Sabah and Sarawak, where local coalitions which have split from Barisan Nasional in the last term can do well in terms of seats on relatively small shares of the national vote. The risk for Perikatan Nasional and Barisan Nasional is that a conservative, predominately Bumiputera vote will be split in Peninsular Malaysia, under the ‘first-past-the-post’ system.”
When it came to voter views toward political figures specifically, Mr Muhyiddin appeared to hold the best impression, with one in three (33%) feeling positively toward him. He has a narrow lead over Mr Anwar (29%).
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri is less popular than either of his two main opponents, with 22% expressing a positive view and 30% negative.
Fewer held positive impressions of Mr Abdul Hadi (16%) and Dr Mahathir (14%), with the greatest proportion of voters holding negative impressions toward the latter (44%).
Voters were also asked about the issues of greatest importance this election. Cost of living dominates, with both rising costs of goods and services and income ranking highly.
Rising costs of goods and services came up tops (51%), followed by government integrity (38%). Both issues were of even greater consideration among older voters above the age of 50 (60% for rising costs of goods and services; 51% for government integrity).
Income was the topic of third greatest importance (37%), and more paramount among younger voters between the ages of 18-34 (47%).
Close to three in ten voters prioritised stability (28%), while one in five held protection of Bumiputera rights in high regard (22%).
Education, employment, income inequality, reducing discrimination, healthcare, candidate suitability and housing affordability made up the middle ground, while environmental issues, personal freedoms and crime were of least concern at this time (5% each).
Most voters said they have been following the news about the election at least a little (93%), with the most popular source of political news being Facebook (57%). A comparable number of voters also refer to television (56%).
Half rely on talking with friends and family (50%), while slightly fewer use other social network sites (44%).
Slightly less than two in five get their news from newspapers, whether printed or online (39%), or other news websites that are not associated with any newspaper in particular (37%).
Another one in five access Twitter for their political news (22%).
Methodology:
YouGov interviewed 2,687 Malaysian Citizens across Malaysia between 8th and 14th November 2022. The effective margin of error on this survey is ± 2.4. YouGov conducts its polling using active sampling techniques from our online panel. When using Active Sampling, restrictions are put in place to ensure that only the people contacted are allowed to participate. We target specific demographics to ensure that the final sample is representative of the population by age, gender, ethnicity, education levels and electorate. This approach is used for YouGov polling globally.