PETALING JAYA: Rising Chinese support for Barisan Nasional shows the upcoming Johor state election is the right time for the coalition to leverage on other communities to sway fence-sitters who previously supported Pakatan Harapan, a survey finds.

       The Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (Insap) said this was reflected in its survey findings that an unusually high number of respondents had yet to decide who to vote for, and that Malay support would be divided in the polls.

       Insap deputy chairman Dr Pamela Yong said the survey found that a large portion of respondents were traditional Pakatan voters who might cast their ballot for another party this time.

       Yong said more than 50% of respondents were disappointed with Pakatan over unfulfilled election promises during its 22 months in power at Federal level.

       "Also, 45.8% of Chinese respondents who say they are Pakatan supporters would consider picking an MCA candidate for their seat this time around," she said on Monday (Feb 14).

       The survey of 1,240 respondents, conducted from the end of January to early February, found Barisan Nasional and MCA leading with a performance rating of 3.29, followed by 2.8 for Perikatan Nasional and 2.75 for Pakatan.

       At the same time, Yong said it was found that Barisan support from the Chinese community in Johor had risen to an average of 25%, an improvement from the 14th General Election in 2018 when it was between 12% and 15%.

       Yong also said Malay support for Barisan was at 55%, while it varied from 65% to 78% before GE14.

       "There is strong empirical data showing Malay support will be divided in this coming state election, hence it is important for Barisan to leverage on other communities to level its chances of winning in the focus seats," added Yong.

       Yong also said Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad remained a popular choice as Barisan's mentri besar candidate, according to the findings of its survey.

       "Hasni is the right choice for Johoreans, being accepted by all races, and his ratings are consistently high even among younger voters.

       "He is the right man for the job," she said.

       Yong said this would be the best opportunity for Barisan to present a united front, as Opposition parties were fragmented and expected to clash in multi-cornered fights.

       "People are looking for political and economic stability like never before," she added.

       Insap researcher Amirul Johan, meanwhile, said findings showed that 76.2% of the respondents said they had been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

       He added that around 43.4% of respondents only had enough to sustain themselves for about three months, with 30.5% saying they had no savings at all.

       Yong said this showed the people's economic hardship was real, and urgent assistance was needed to help them.

       "Many people in Johor are dependent on (visitors) from Singapore and due to border controls, unemployment and lack of business opportunities have become top of mind when it comes to picking a stable government for the next four to five years.

       "This time around, their choices will be dictated by basic bread-and-butter issues and not some pie in the sky," said Yong.

       Nominations for the election are on Feb 26 with polling on March 12.