Survey finds Najib still has considerable public support

(FMT) – Despite the controversies surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak, a survey has found that he still has considerable support from the public.

The nationwide survey which was conducted by PKR-linked Invoke said that out of 17,962 registered voters polled, 44% were happy with the way Najib was governing the country.

Another 44% responded in the negative, while the balance of 12% gave no answer.

Unveiling the survey results today, PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli said out of the 12,114 Malay respondents, 49% agreed with Najib’s actions as prime minister.

The same sentiment was expressed by 44% of the 2,710 Chinese respondents, and 44% of the 1,674 Indians polled.

However, when asked who they would prefer to be the prime minister after the next general election, only 31% chose Najib.

The rest either abstained from answering or picked other candidates from opposition parties.

“And only 37% of those who named Najib as their choice of prime minister are Malays,” said Rafizi, who is also the coordinator for Invoke.

“This shows that BN (Barisan Nasional) voters may support the party, but many of them are willing to switch to the opposition rather than stay with BN because they do not want Najib as the prime minister (for another term).”

Rafizi also suggested that Najib’s popularity in the poll could be attributed to him being the only candidate listed from BN while votes for opposition leaders were split, with more than one name offered in the survey.

“If other BN leaders were listed as choices for the prime minister post, the survey results may have turned out differently with support for Najib being lower,” he said.

He added that he interpreted the 12% of those who refused to state their opinions on Najib’s performance as actually not favouring the prime minister.

“Malaysians don’t like to answer political questions,” he said.