PETALING JAYA, Mar 11 (Sin Chew Daily) — For the first time since the country's independence, Malaysia saw a change of government in the 2018 general elections.
However, a coup, widely known as the "Sheraton Move" plotted by some in the Pakatan Harapan government, led to its downfall less than two years since it took office.
The Perikatan Nasional took over the government with a simple majority. Since then, the country has been in a state of political instability.
Which political party will the voters support in the coming 15th general elections?
Many still undecided
Based on the joint poll conducted by Sin Chew Daily and Sinar Harian, of the 24,370 readers who took part in the poll, close to 30% of Chinese voters had not made up their minds or were unsure of the political party they would support.
As for Sinar Harian readers, about 16.3% of them were undecided.
A total of 4,776 voters had not decided on the political party they would support in the coming election. This is also the second highest votes opted by the readers. Some 1,863 of Sin Chew Daily's readers, or 28.9% of those participating in the poll, and 2,913 Sinar Harian readers or 16.3% in the poll made up this group.
The statistics reflected that among Chinese and Malay voters, the ratio of fence-sitters is sizable.
PKR top choice, Bersatu last
Compiling the joint poll results, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) received the highest support with 4,824 votes (14.41%) endorsed by readers of Sin Chew Daily and Sinar Harian.
The respondents gave "undecided over the choice of political party to support" the second highest votes.
DAP and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah), coalition members of Pakatan Harapan, received 4,036 votes (12.06%) and 2,537 votes (7.58%) in the third and sixth place respectively.
Umno ranked the fourth place with 3,502 votes (10.46%), followed by PAS which garnered 2,538 votes (7.58%)
Muda, the political party set up by former Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman who is also member of parliament for Muar, received support with 1,782 votes (5.32%) to take the 7th place.
Parti Warisan Sabah received 1,733 votes (8.32%) settled at the 8th place.
Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia led by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin polled 1,701 votes or 5.08% to take the 9th place.
PH over PN
Based on the figures compiled, the Pakatan Harapan received 34.04% of votes. If Parti Warian Sabah were to join Pakatan Harapan, it received 39.22% of support.
Major Malay political parties such as Umno, PAS and Bersatu only garnered 20.24% of support.
A total of 950 respondents in the poll stated that they had not registered as voters.
The Parti Pejuang Tanah Air formed by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad only received 724 votes (2.16%). Other Barisan Nasional component parties – MCA and MIC received 890 votes (2.66%) and 408 votes (1.22%) respectively.
The poll participated by Sin Chew's readers revealed that the Chinese still supported Pakatan Harapan. It bagged the top three positions. DAP was the readers' top choice, followed by PKR and Amanah. The readers had not decided the political party as their fourth choice while Parti Warisan Sabah came in fifth. PAS was at the bottom of the list.
However, for Sinar Harian readers, Umno was most popular but no decision made on the second choice. Third in line was PAS, followed by PKR and Bersatu.
GE15 after pandemic
Both the Chinese and Malay communities preferred for the 15th general elections to be held after the COVID-19 pandemic is fully contained.
Those who supported election to be held in after the pandemic made up 42.26% while 29.17% opined that the election should be held right after the Emergency decree while 10.68% disagreed.
17.89% of respondents felt the election should only be held in 2023.
The Chinese and Malays differed on whether an election will resolve the current political instability. The Chinese did not think that the election would resolve the matter.
Although more than half of the readers (53.71%) opined that election could be the only way to resolve the instability, majority of Sin Chew Daily's readers disagreed. They wanted the government to introduce anti-hopping laws to check political frogs.
They felt that members of parliament would still cross-over after the election and the government should introduce laws to prevent them from doing so. A by-election should be called right after a member of parliament defects to a rival party. If politicians were to focus on COVID-19 preventive measures and economic revival issues instead of political interest, an election would not be called.
Their views also covered the appointment of new prime minister by the King, the current phase of inter-party collaboration and the emphasis on national interest, among others.
Both the Malays and Chinese, 84.3% of them, agreed that political instability has hampered the country's progress while 15.71% disagreed.
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