THE majority of Malacca voters were impressed by chief minister Adly Zahari’s performance but it was not enough to win Pakatan Harapan the state elections, a survey by Ilham Centre showed.

People ultimately voted for the party instead of the merits of the individual candidate. 

Ilham Centre chief researcher Prof Dr Yusri Ibrahim said this in the survey findings shared with The Malaysian Insight.

Adly, who is from Amanah and who became chief minister after PH won the state in the 2018 general election, was much more popular Umno’s Sulaiman Md Ali, who succeeded him.

The PH leader is also better liked than Idris Haron, his Barisan Nasional (BN) predecessor.

“Voters in the end decided to pick BN because the Umno narrative during the campaign was able to influence Malay voters in the urban and rural areas.”

“(Umno) used political stability as the reason for voters to choose Umno-BN.

“Although Malacca voters in in the 2018 general election chose their candidates based on personality, in the state elections many chose based on party,” said Yusri.

In the survey, the PH state government received a 51% approval rating; Perikatan Nasional 19%, and BN 13%.

“That is a huge gap. But even though voters were happy with the Adly administration, they still picked BN over PH,” Yusri noted.

Adly, who is the Bukit Katil assemblyman, received a 56% approval rating. Sulaiman only got 26%.

“Fifty-one per cent of voters did not think Sulaiman was a good chief minister; the people of Malacca thought well of Adly,” Yusri said.

Ilham Centre interviewed 1,051 respondents of all races aged 21 to 60. 

The survey was conducted from October 23 to November 15. 

In the November 20 Malacca polls, BN won 21 of the state’s 28 seats and 38% of the popular vote.

PH only won five seats, with PKR losing all the 11 seats it contested while DAP bagged four and Amanah, one. 

PN claimed two seats.

The Sulaiman-led Malacca government collapsed in October after four elected representatives withdrew their support for BN-PN.

Idris, one of the four assemblymen, was inducted into PKR and contested on a PH ticket but lost. – December 1, 2021.