PH supporters say no to working with other parties

A poll shows Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin (left) is more popular than PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, DAP sec-gen Lim Guan Eng and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

(FMT) – A majority of Pakatan Harapan (PH) supporters are not keen on the opposition coalition having any political cooperation with either Barisan Nasional (BN) or Perikatan Nasional (PN).

This was revealed in a survey by a Kuala Lumpur-based research centre called O2 Malaysia.

It said only 39% of PH supporters were supportive of forming a unity government with PN, while just 28% were agreeable to cooperating with BN.

“This might indicate that they are more willing to not be in the government if PH does not obtain a simple majority in the next general election (GE15),” O2 said in a statement today.

It also said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s popularity had been in a steady decline since the second quarter of 2020, going from a 66% approval rating to 51% in the first quarter of 2021.

It said approval ratings for other political party leaders remained stable.

However, O2 said Muhyiddin remained the most popular among political party leaders. His 51% rating was well ahead of PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (35%), DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng (30%) and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (26%).

The popularity rating for former prime ministers Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Najib Razak were at 33% and 27%, respectively.

The survey, conducted from March 26 to April 9, involved 1,582 respondents, aged 18 and above.

They comprised 54% of Malays in Peninsular Malaysia, 28% of Chinese, 11% of Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputeras, and 7% of Indians.