Pakatan ahead in Perak, Selangor, KL, internal poll shows

By Yow Hong Chieh

November 15, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is expected to secure a majority of the federal votes in Perak, Selangor as well as Kuala Lumpur, an internal PKR poll shows.

Fifty-one per cent of respondents from Perak said they would vote for the federal opposition, along with 57 per cent in Selangor and 61 per cent in Kuala Lumpur, where PR holds 10 of the 11 parliamentary seats.

File photo of Pakatan Rakyat leaders at their convention in Shah Alam in December 2009. A recent poll shows the coalition will do well in the next general election in several states.

PR is also expected to win 40 per cent of the votes in Johor, traditionally a Barisan Nasional (BN) stronghold, according to the survey obtained by The Malaysian Insider.

This is despite Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim scoring net negative approval ratings in all but one of the four states.

The de facto PKR leader only achieved a net positive two points in Selangor with an approval rating of 44 per cent, while support was lukewarm in Kuala Lumpur (net negative one point) and weaker in Perak (net negative 16 points) and Johor (net negative 17 points).

In comparison, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak scored net positives of two, six, 10 and 34 points for Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Perak and Johor respectively.

The survey also found that support for current Perak and Johor mentris besar Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir and Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman respectively were split along racial lines.

Abdul Ghani was very well-regarded by Malay voters (net positive 44 points) but failed to strike a chord with Chinese ones (net negative 23 per cent).

Likewise, Zambry, seen positively by the Malays (net positive 27 per cent), was shunned by the Chinese (net negative 34 per cent).

Former Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin and Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, in contrast, were more popular with the Chinese but scored net positives with Malay voters as well.

Nizar, who was removed from his post during the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis, received net positive approval ratings of six and 18 points from Malay and Chinese voters respectively.

Khalid’s support among Malays was a touch lower at net positive three points but relatively higher among the Chinese at net positive 22 points.

The survey, released to PKR last month, was conducted between August 22 and September 15 and polled 1,000 voters in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Perak and Johor.