Survey: Pakatan Harapan can win eight states if it works with PAS

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — Pakatan Harapan can capture Putrajaya and win eight states if it works with PAS in the next general election, a survey by the Selangor government’s research outfit has found.

Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE) predicted that a PH and PAS cooperation will see the alliance win around 59 per cent of total votes in Peninsula Malaysia.

The think tank’s deputy chairman Professor Datuk Mohammad Redzuan Othman however said that this will only occur if it is a one-on-one battle between Barisan Nasional’s (BN) component parties against an opposition alliance.

“If Pakatan Harapan works with PAS, they will gain 59 per cent of the votes and will capture Putrajaya and eight states: Kedah, Perak, Penang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor and Kelantan,” he said.

He did not disclose what would be the scenario if PH were to contest against both BN and PAS in the 14th general election.

In this scenario, Mohammad Redzuan also pointed out that BN will lose its two-thirds majority in multiple states including the eight that will fall to a PH-PAS alliance.

The survey, was conducted for six days from August 11 till August 16 involving 4,486 respondents out of 12,082,403 registered voters. It studied 130 out of 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsula Malaysia where IDE utilised a new tablet-based application allowing for real time data collection and analysis.

Some of the reasons behind flagging support for the BN coalition could be from the perception of a lower quality of living in the past two years, the survey added.

“Up to 71 per cent of our respondents are unhappy with the current quality of life – 18 per cent think it has badly deteriorated, 53 per cent thinks it’s deteriorated and 23 per cent finds their quality of living to be mediocre. Only 8 per cent thinks their quality of life is improving,” said Mohammad Redzuan.

When it comes to confidence and happiness over Malaysia’s political situation and democratic process, a whopping 81 per cent are unhappy with the whole scenario.

The survey disclosed that 18 per cent are extremely unhappy, 27 per cent are unhappy, 36 per cent are quite unhappy, 17 per cent are happy and only 2 per cent are very happy.