A DAY after a think tank survey showed Najib Razak to be the popular choice for prime minister, an online poll has placed Dr Mahathir Mohamad back in the running as the preferred leader of the country.

News portal Malaysiakini reported that its readers’ poll showed that 8,926 (69.9%t) out of 12,777 respondents voted for Dr Mahathir to be Pakatan Harapan’s prime minister candidate.

Only 3,276 (25.6%) disagreed and the remainder said they were “not sure” or “didn’t care” in the poll held in three languages over six days from May 19.

Respondents in English were the most supportive of Dr Mahathir with 76.6% of them saying they wanted the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chairman to be prime minister.

In the Bahasa Malaysia poll version, 68.6% voted for Dr Mahathir while  only 51% of the portal’s Chinese readers chose him. Malaysiakini said the Chinese poll results could be due to Dr Mahathir’s words and actions when he was prime minister. 

One of these was the then prime minister’s likening of the Suqiu election appeal to communism. After accepting the appeal, including for a review of the National Economic Policy, following the 1999 polls,  Mahathir compared the movement to communists.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang had slammed Dr Mahathir over the issue in 2000. Both men have since put their differences aside to work together in PH. 

Malaysiakini said it was also possible that more Chinese readers preferred jailed de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to Mahathir.

With the general election looming, PH is facing pressure to name its candidate for prime minister.

Yesterday, Invoke Centre for Policy Initiatives (I-CPI) revealed its survey findings on the popularity of Najib and opposition leaders for the country’s top post. 

The survey showed that Najib was the more popular for the job.

It said 31% of 17,962 voters responded they wanted Najib as the prime minister after the next elections while only 8.1% wanted Anwar.

Among opposition party leaders, Anwar was the most preferred, the survey learnt from respondents stating which PH leader they wanted as the next prime minister.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang came in second and Dr Mahathir third in the survey. – May 25, 2017.