PETALING JAYA: The fight for the 15th General Election (GE15) is set to be a showdown between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan, with the former having a lead in a nationwide mega survey, but Perikatan Nasional could well be the vote splitter.
Two separate polls found the same sentiments from the respondents they interviewed.
An online survey by O2 Research Malaysia involving 1,105 respondents of all races showed that regardless of who they vote for, 37% of respondents believe that Barisan will likely win the highest number of seats in GE15, against Pakatan’s 32% and Perikatan’s 12%.
According to another survey by the Ilham Centre, Barisan is the top choice for its respondents with 35% support out of 1,622 respondents, followed by Pakatan, which has 18% backing, while Perikatan received 12%.
Both polls are part of a mega survey known as “Suara Rakyat Malaysia Menuju PRU15” (Malaysian Voices: On the Road to GE15), which is a collaboration between three research firms and Media in Arms, an alliance of five media major outlets.
Media in Arms, which comprises Sinar Harian, The Star, Sin Chew Daily, Astro Awani and Malaysia Nanban, teamed up early this year to offer readers diversified and in-depth content.
The third research firm in the collaboration is the Huayan Policy Institute, which conducted a hybrid survey via online and face-to-face interviews of 2,354 Chinese voters.
According to O2 Research Malaysia, Barisan still received the highest support from Malay voters, followed by Perikatan and Pakatan, respectively.
However, it also found that 19% of its survey’s respondents remain undecided about who they think would win GE15.
Likewise, Ilham Centre found that Barisan is the top pick among Malay and Indian respondents, while Pakatan received the highest support from the Chinese community.
The survey showed that although Malay votes seem to be split between Barisan, Pakatan and Perikatan, Barisan is slightly ahead with 46% support compared to 16% who opted for Perikatan as their top party of choice and 13% for Pakatan.
For the Chinese respondents, Pakatan received 38% support, while Barisan garnered 20% and Perikatan had 6%, said the survey.
As for Indian respondents, 35% picked Barisan, 29% chose Pakatan, while 6% chose Perikatan.
However, Ilham Centre also found that 21% of the respondents remain undecided which party they will support in the GE15.
On the issue of political cooperation, O2 Research Malaysia’s survey found that a majority of Malay respondents want Malay-based parties like Umno and PAS to cooperate in the GE15.
However, a total of 19.8%, Malay respondents disagreed with the idea, while 11.5% remained neutral on such calls.
When it comes to Pakatan, some 73.3% believe that it should cooperate with other opposition parties for GE15, said O2 Research Malaysia.
In the event of a hung Parliament in GE15, O2 Research Malaysia’s survey found that a huge majority of Barisan and Perikatan supporters want the two coalitions to work together to form a government.
However, if Pakatan is not able to form a government on its own, its supporters are split regarding the type of cooperation that should be created between political parties after GE15 to set up the Federal Government.
Barisan Nasional had announced that it will go solo in GE15 and any political cooperation will only be determined after the outcome of the polls.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had said that Barisan was open for cooperation with other political parties after the GE15 if it could not secure a simple majority to form a government.
Pakatan, meanwhile, has formed an electoral pact with Muda going into GE15.
PAS has chosen to stick with its partner Bersatu to face the national polls under the Perikatan banner.
In the meantime, Perikatan has indicated that it has not held any official discussions on whether it will be working together with Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) to face GE15.
