PRIME Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s approval ratings has dropped drastically with 85% out of close to 8,000 people polled voting for him to resign from the top post. 

The poll, conducted by Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE), said only 12% voted for him to remain as prime minister and was of the view that he should not resign, while 3% expressed uncertainty.  

IDE senior research manager Khairul Ariffin Mohd Munir told The Malaysian Insight their latest poll was conducted to gauge the views of the people.

“Their reason for rejecting (Muhyiddin) was the management of Covid-19 pandemic, high number of cases, lockdowns, loss of jobs and political fatigue. 

“They are more or less frustrated with what’s happening on the ground,” he said. 

According to IDE, the public opinion survey 2021 was conducted online from July 11 to 18, involving 7,986 respondents nationwide. 

This survey, IDE said, related to Muhiyiddin’s position as the prime minister, ahead of the special parliamentary sitting, which started on Monday. 

IDE said the respondent profiles include gender, age, race and support for the party.  

“Based on a micro analysis involving age and race, this survey found that the view was comprehensive from the ages of 18 to 66 and above.  

“The same decision also involved cross-ethnic Malays, Chinese, Indians, natives of Sabah, Sarawak Bumiputera and others.”

The strongest call for him to quit was 88.2%, which came from those aged between 21 and 29. 

Race-wise, the sentiment for Muhyiddin to quit was strongest among the Indians (87.8%) followed by the Chinese (84.9%) and Malays (84.2%). 

He said during this survey less than 10% of the respondents polled said they supported Bersatu, of which Muhyiddin is the president. 

“There is political fatigue and political instability because Perikatan Nasional is not stable with Umno withdrawing their support.” 

Khairul said this survey echoed a similar poll they had conducted in January. 

“In January when we did the first survey, their main concern was political instability.

“If we see now, their concern was also on the prime minister’s standing. Even the response on social media against the prime minister is high.” 

In January, a poll conducted by IDE said only 19% out of the 8,352 respondents believed the 72-year-old should stay until the next election. 

Another 46% said Muhyiddin should resign as prime minister after having lost the majority support in the Dewan Rakyat. 

The online poll, conducted from February 19 to 28, also showed that 29% wanted Muhyiddin to dissolve Parliament for fresh elections while 2% said he should maintain the state of emergency to remain in power. – July 28, 2021.