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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Malaysia PM likely to win but oppn could win popular vote: Survey

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KUALA LUMPUR: With just a week to go to a general election, Malaysia’s main opposition bloc is making gains and will likely win the popular vote, but Prime Minister Najib Razak is expected to retain power, according to a survey by pollster Merdeka Center.


Malaysians vote on May 9, with Najib going up against his former mentor turned critic Mahathir Mohamad, a former long-serving prime minister now leading the opposition.


Najib is facing his toughest election yet as he grapples with public anger over rising costs and a financial scandal at a state fund.


Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition is likely to win 43.7 per cent of the popular vote, as of May 1, up from a forecast of 42 per cent, as of April 9, Merdeka Centre director Ibrahim Suffian said on Wednesday.


Najib’s Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is expected to win 40.3 per cent of the popular vote, as of May 1, down slightly from an April 9 forecast of 40.8 per cent, Ibrahim said.


The Merdeka Centre is one of Malaysia’s few independent pollsters.


The poll was conducted in west Malaysia, which accounts for nearly 75 per cent of parliamentary seats. It did not include the Malaysian part of Borneo island.


Support for Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), another opposition party that is not part of Mahathir’s coalition, dropped from 17.2 per cent in April to 16 per cent as of May 1.


“If elections were held yesterday, BN would still prevail,” Ibrahim said in a presentation streamed live on Facebook, referring to the ruling coalition which has held power since independence from Britain in 1957.


Najib’s coalition failed to win the popular vote in the last elections in 2013, getting 47.3 per cent of the votes in what was seen as a setback for the ruling alliance even though it retained power.


Under Malaysia’s first-past-the-post, or simple majority, system the party that gets the most seats in parliament wins even if it does not win the popular vote. A worse performance for the BN coalition than in 2013, even if it retains power, would likely raise questions within the ruling bloc about Najib’s leadership.


Support for Mahathir’s opposition alliance among majority ethnic Malays has increased.— Reuters


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