Survey detects dip in support for Najib

A Universiti Malaya Center for Democracy and Elections (UMCEDEL) survey has found a slight drop in the people's support towards Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

This follows a comparison in its survey done between March 31 and April 15, and another done recently between Sept 1 and Sept 15, this year.

While the survey found Najib's popularity between March and April was at 61 percent, it noted a drop by three percent five months later.

Several criteria were used in evaluating Najib's popularity, such as how he gets along with the people, efficient and good economic management, his respectability and if he is well known internationally.

The survey was carried out on 1,536 respondents nationwide and has a margin of error of 2.5 percent and a 95 percent belief ratio. In its March to April survey, a total of 2,282 were polled.

The survey also found a decline in confidence that a Najib-led BN would retain Putrajaya following the 13th general election.

The earlier survey done found 49 percent were confident that BN would defend Putrajaya, while the latest survey found that figure had dropped to 44 percent.

In the meantime, the people's confidence that Pakatan Rakyat would win Putrajaya has increased from 21 percent in March to 30 percent in its survey ending Sept 15, while the number of those uncertain has declined by 26 percent.

It further noted a decline in support for the PM's transformation programmes focusing on three key reforms - the RM500 given to families (BR1M) who have less than RM3,000 in wages, the Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M) and also the 1Malaysia clinics.

For example, for the BR1M program, there was a decline in support by five per cent from 66 percent, while KR1M, which recorded a 68 percent support in the previous survey, dropped to 56 percent. 

The 1Malaysia clinic also recorded a decline in support to 65 percent from 74 previously.

UMCEDEL's survey comes on the back of another survey carried out by Merdeka Centre last June, which also noted a slight reduction in the people's support for Najib following the Bersih crackdown.

Merdeka Centre in its survey found that Najib’s approval rating had remained positively stable overall but satisfaction with his government according to the pollster was down six percent, with only 42 percent of respondents claiming that “they were happy with the government”.

Najib's highest rating according to Merdeka Centre was at a high of 71 percent last December, before its last survey in June at 64 percent.  

72 percent want Najib-Anwar debate

The survey also found that 72 percent of the 1,536 respondents want to see a debate between Najib and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Meanwhile, the survey found 17 percent do not want this while the remaining 11 percent do not know.

Anwar has several times threw the gauntlet for a debate with Najib on the economy since May this year.

This followed various debates held between DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek, and also the debate on the National Higher Education fund between PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli with Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar.

Meanwhile the two titans of the Chinese community, Lim and Chua had debated twice in February and also in July.