Invoke: Nurul Izzah more popular than Anwar among voters

An analytics firm has gathered data that appears to confirm what many believe to be the answer to a perennial question: who will succeed PKR president Anwar Ibrahim?

According to Invoke Solution, a clear candidate is his daughter Nurul Izzah.

The Rafizi Ramli-owned firm based this on the findings of a survey it did between March 1 and April 8 this year.

The survey, which was stratified by age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic setting, interviewed 1,500 voters who are non-PKR members and another 1,500 PKR members.

The survey found that among voters, 28 percent view Anwar positively, 23 percent negatively, and 48 percent have a neutral opinion of the opposition leader.

Comparatively, 49 percent of voters felt positive about Nurul Izzah, seven percent negative, and 33 percent neutral.

She also had the lowest unrecognisability (11 percent) among the PKR leaders surveyed. By comparison, 23 percent of voters did not recognise Rafizi and 34 percent did not recognise Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

Anwar’s popularity

The survey also found that Anwar's popularity decreased among the younger voters, and rationalised that this is likely due to the PKR president's heyday as a youth activist, Umno minister and then Reformasi leader growing older and older.

PKR president Anwar Ibrahim

"Those who came of age during the era of Reformasi would now be in their forties.

"To the majority of Malaysia’s working population then, Anwar is more historical relic than movement leader," a report on the survey said.

It added that since Anwar has not left a "tangible" national legacy compared to Dr Mahathir Mohamad's megaprojects, youths are increasingly unable to resonate with the PKR president as party members do.

While 49 percent of voters felt PKR had capable leaders, Invoke surmised that this doesn't mean approval for Anwar.

"Bearing in mind Anwar’s weak personal numbers, it stands to reason that the party president is not one of the (capable) ‘leaders’ in question.

"Ironically, this suggests that instead of serving as the spearhead to a possible victory, the (PKR) president could be more of a liability than he may otherwise care to admit," it said.

Clear candidate

However, replacing Anwar has been a very touchy topic, with Invoke founder Rafizi warning that if the PKR president were to step down before the 15th general election, it would cause chaos in the opposition.

Analytics firm Invoke Solution founder Rafiz Ramli

But if the time comes and Anwar does resign, Invoke said that based on her popularity among voters and PKR members, Nurul Izzah was a "clear candidate" to succeed and carry the party forward.

It said the Permatang Pauh MP has likely benefited from two factors.

"Firstly, as the daughter of Anwar, Izzah has a level of public recognition that stretches back to the Reformasi years and gives her darling status among much of the PKR rank-and-file.

"Secondly, she has remained a consistent backbench presence in Parliament since 2008, while succeeding in avoiding the controversy that has surrounded many of her party counterparts."

Despite her popularity, Nurul Izzah has taken a back seat to leadership in PKR.

She had resigned as PKR vice-president in December 2018 and declined to partake in this year's party polls, saying she wished to focus on wooing fence-sitting voters instead. - Mkini