PETALING JAYA: Three factors – family, friends and social media – are set to play crucial roles in influencing the voting patterns of Malaysian youths when they go to the ballot box in the 15th General Election (GE15).
A preliminary study conducted by Marang MCA division women’s chief Monna Ong (pic) that polled 951 youths across several states found that the opinions of family and friends influenced 80% of respondents’ voting decisions.
“This means youths are listening to family and friends before voting,” said Ong.
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Trailing closely behind family and friends was content on the Internet and social media, which constituted about 60% and 46%, respectively.
“This is because technology has grown rapidly and people from urban and rural areas can get news from the internet,” she added.
The survey was conducted in three urban areas – Penang, Selangor and Johor – and three rural areas, namely Kedah, Perak and Kelantan.
Ong also said that the respondents polled from July to August showed that an average of 75% of youths were concerned about issues on Covid-19 while 65% were worried about economic recovery.
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“These were average figures for both rural and urban youths, and there was not much difference between them,” she added.
Meanwhile, Ong said of the 951 youths, 84% were already employed, 20% of them were still studying, and 74% of them were degree holders.
“It shows that millennials today are highly educated,” added Ong, whose research was titled “Voting Intentions Among Malaysian Millennials”.
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Recently, The Star, along with leading mainstream media outlets – Sinar Harian, Astro Awani, Sin Chew Daily and Malaysia Nanban – collaborated on news content.
Urban youths interviewed by the media collaboration said that jobs and financial stability were among their concerns.
Many who will vote for the first time in GE15 raised concerns over increasing unemployment due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise in the cost of living while wages remained stagnant.
The Star, in the media collaboration, also worked with three research firms – Ilham Centre, O2 Research and the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies – to conduct a mega survey titled “Suara Rakyat Malaysia Menuju PRU15” (“Malaysian Voices: On the Road to GE15”).
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The study will be published next week.
Meanwhile, Ong also said that more details on youth voting patterns will be released in the coming months once her research is concluded.
In Ong’s research, 951 youths were polled using a structural questionnaire method that targeted Malaysians aged between 18 and 29.
Ong is a final-year PhD student in psychology at the Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT).
In August, a study by the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Tun Tan Cheng Lock Centre for Social and Policy Studies (TCLC) found that only 40% of the respondents indicated that they had sufficient knowledge of the voting system.
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A total of 265 respondents aged between 16 and 30 took part in the TCLC study.
About 21 million Malaysians will be voting in GE15, with more than 1.3 million of them aged between 18 and 20.
See Part 2 of Undi18 stories on Tuesday on why it is crucial for political parties to attract youth voters including those in rural areas.
