Four months after the 12th General Elections (or 308), Malaysian voters cite the state of the economy and political developments as main concerns.
The opinion poll, 2nd Quarter 2008 Peninsular Malaysia Voter Opinion Survey was carried out by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research between 4th and 14th July 2008 to gauge voters’ perceptions of current issues, the state of the economy and leadership.
The poll’s findings will inform policymakers, politicians, and grassroots advocacy groups as they address voters’ needs as well as engage in public debate. The opinion poll also provides a view of the state of affairs approximately four months after the results of the general elections.
This poll is a part of Merdeka Center’s series of surveys intended to be carried out on a quarterly basis on issues of top voter concern and perceptions of the economic and views on Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.
The survey reveals a large majority also indicated that they perceived the country was going in the wrong direction, based on only 28% who felt satisfied with the way things are going in the country.
This may be in part due to a deepening concern over the state of the economy as a majority (59%), were worried over economic related issues followed by 10% who cited political issues as being most important.
With respect to views on political parties and leaders, in two mutually exclusive questions, the survey found 44% of Peninsular Malaysia voters were satisfied with the Barisan Nasional while 57% report being satisfied with Pakatan Rakyat. The poll also found 42% of voters reported satisfaction with Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s performance as prime minister.
With respect to Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the survey found that only 11% believed in the allegation of sexual misconduct while 66% agreed that it “was a politically motivated action to disrupt Anwar Ibrahim’s political career”.
The survey also found that public confidence towards institutions likely to be involved in handling the matter to be relatively low with not more than 33% citing confidence. The Peninsular Malaysia wide telephone survey of 1030 randomly selected Malaysian registered voters was carried out between 4th and 14th July 2008 was funded via Merdeka Center’s internally generated resources.
