THE general election on Saturday is unlikely to produce a clear champion but could see Pakatan Harapan winning 35% of the votes, an international pollster said today. 

YouGov said the survey also showed that Perikatan Nasional is set to pick up 20% of the votes, with Barisan Nasional trailing with 17%. 

YouGov interviewed 2,687 Malaysians across Malaysia between November 8 and 14.

“While Pakatan is likely to perform well in urban parts of Malaysia, the substantially lower number of voters required to win a seat in rural electorates where BN and PN are likely to perform well means that parliament is likely to be very complex. 

“That is not even taking into account the states of Sabah and Sarawak, where local coalitions which have split from BN in the last term can do well in terms of seats on relatively small shares of the national vote.  

“The risk for PN and BN is that a conservative, predominately Bumiputera vote will be split in Peninsular Malaysia, under the ‘first-past-the-post’ system,” said YouGov’s Apac head of public affairs and polling Dr Campbell White. 

The survey also found that PN’s Muhyiddin Yassin held the best impression on voters’ views toward political figures, with one in three (33%) feeling positive toward him.  

He has a narrow lead over PN’s Anwar Ibrahim (29%). 

BN’s poster boy Ismail Sabri Yaakob is less popular than either of his two main opponents, with 22% expressing a positive view and 30% negative. 

Fewer had positive impressions of PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (16%) and Gerakan Tanah Air chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad (14%), with the greatest proportion of voters holding negative impressions toward the latter (44%). 

GE15 is set to see multi-corner fights involving all the major pacts—BN, PH, PN and GTA, especially in Peninsular Malaysia. 

There are also a record number of independents as well as smaller parties in the race. 

Most local pollsters have indicated that PH is leading the race to win GE15 but agreed that it would be difficult for the pact to form a government on its own. – November 16, 2022.