KUALA LUMPUR – Voters in the 15th general election (GE15) preferred that Barisan Nasional (BN) form the government with either Perikatan Nasional (PN) or Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the event of a hung Parliament, a survey revealed.
According to pollsters Endeavour-MGC Research Centre, a post-election pact between PH and PN was the least favoured by voters, based on a survey it had conducted between November 7 and 15, which polled 1,068 voters from all parliamentary constituencies in the peninsula.
“A total of 28% of voters responding (to the November survey) stated that their preference of any potential post-GE15 cooperation should be between PN and BH, with PH and BN following closely behind at 26%,” it said in an analysis of the GE15 outcome released yesterday.
A significantly smaller number of voters were willing to throw their support behind a PH-PN pact, with only 19% feeling that the two coalitions should work together should there be a hung Parliament.
It also said that PN’s GE15 tactical campaign is “one of the most effective in recent Malaysian political history”, with its surveys “correctly capturing” the gains made by the coalition.
PN was the biggest gainer in terms of registered voter support, recording a significant 11% rise, with about five days of campaigning remaining.
“With just under a week of campaigning to go, PN clearly had the momentum compared with the two other major coalitions (PH and BN),” it said.
“An extrapolation of the gains made in the 25 days between the end of the October poll (on October 20) and the November poll five days before polling day (on November 19) would show that PN would reach 32.2% of the popular vote share.
“This is within the margin of error of the eventual actual popular vote share of 34.9% secured by PN and (coalition member) PAS candidates in GE15 across Peninsular Malaysia.”
PH chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as prime minister on November 24, after nearly a week of political impasse in the nation when GE15 resulted in no single coalition securing the required seats to form a government.
Anwar’s unity government now comprises mainly PH with 82 parliamentary seats, BN with 30, and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) with 23.
Six MPs from Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, three from Warisan, as well as one each from Parti Bangsa Malaysia and Sabah’s Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat, are also part of the unity government.
The research centre had earlier predicted that GE15 would result in a hung Parliament, with no single coalition securing the required seats to form a government by itself.
It had also projected then that it would be possible for BN, PN, and GPS to cooperate with each other, as the trio would likely surpass the 111-seat threshold required to establish the government.
“Incidentally, this predicted scenario is what the leadership of PN claimed to have secured on November 21,” the pollster said yesterday.
The centre was likely alluding to PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s claims that his coalition had garnered sufficient numbers needed to form the government, including a letter with instructions from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, after it secured 73 federal seats.
Additionally, the pollster had accurately predicted that PH would win the largest parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia and bag the largest popular vote share, based on a survey it had carried out between October 8 and 20. – The Vibes, December 7, 2022
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