PETALING JAYA, Jan 3 (Sin Chew Daily) — Following the resignation of Maszlee Malik as education minister, prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he would announce a new candidate to helm the ministry in near future.

It has been said that MP for Jeli Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, the incumbent foreign minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah and deputy foreign minister Marzuki Yahya are the most likely candidates.

However, a poll conducted by The Malaysian Insight shows that Nurul Izzah Anwar, PKR's MP for Permatang Pauh, is the most favourite candidate for the post.

Among the 1,486 respondents, 775 or 52.2% think that the 39-year-old MP is the best person to become the country's next education minister, followed by Mustapa with 188 votes (12.7%) and Saifuddin Abdullah with 96 votes or a mere 6.5%.