SHAH ALAM, Aug 28 — Indian voters are currently split on whether they should support Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan in the 14th general election, according to a survey.

This is in contrast to the 2008 general election when the community united under the Hindraf banner and became kingmakers for the opposition..

“The urban Indians will vote for the Opposition. The rural Indians, barring the estate workers will cast their ballots for BN. This time around Indian voters are driven by current issues that directly affects them and they are not united under a Hindraf banner,” Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE) deputy chairman Professor Datuk Mohammad Redzuan Othman said when presenting the findings of the survey.

The IDE survey was conducted between August 11 to August 16.

The Selangor think tank also found that 50 per cent of Peninsula Malaysian voters have already decided who they will voted for ahead of the 14th general election.

“From our study around 50 per cent of Malaysians this time around already know who they want to vote for. Another 22 per cent will decide on Nomination Day, 9 per cent a week before polls and 19 per cent will decide on polling day itself.

“Political parties need to work hard to identify and win over the fence sitting 50 per cent,” said Mohammad Redzuan.

He further explained that the undecided 50 per cent are the millennial first time voters aged between 21 to 30 years old. It was clear that the 50 per cent who already know who they will cast their votes for are either party members or stalwart party supporters.

Only 34 per cent of those aged between 21 to 30 years old know who they want to vote for while around 66 per cent of 60 year olds and above already have a party in mind.

Just like the last two general elections, social media will play an extremely important role in voter engagement, with 55 per cent of respondents admitting that their voting patterns are influenced by what they read on social media.

The most used social media tool is mobile chat application WhatsApp with 71 per cent of the respondents admitted to using it the most, followed by Facebook (65 per cent) and Instagram, falling behind at 20 per cent.

“The best time for politicians to engage their voters will be around 8.00 p.m. to 11.00 p.m. This is when you want to upload Facebook status or blast WhatsApp messages because around 38 per cent will be on their social media.

“Around 89 per cent of our respondents said that they generally surf their social media after working hours or from 5 p.m. onwards,” he explained.

IDE’s survey approached 4,486 registered voters out of around 12,082,403 million voters throughout Peninsular Malaysia in 130 out of 165 Parliamentary constituencies.