PETALING JAYA: There is a high number of fence-sitters who are still undecided over their vote in the coming state election and most of them consist of traditional Pakatan Harapan supporters, according to a survey by the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (Insap).

       Insap deputy chairman Datuk Dr Pamela Yong said the survey found that more than 50% of its respondents were disappointed with Pakatan over their unfulfilled election promises during its 22 months in power.

       “A total of 45.8% of the Chinese respondents who identify as being Pakatan supporters say that they will consider picking an MCA candidate this time around,” she said.

       The Insap survey featuring 1,240 respondents, which was conducted from the end of January to early February this year, found Barisan Nasional and MCA leading with a performance rating of 3.29, she said in a statement issued yesterday.

       This was followed by a rating of 2.8 for Perikatan Nasional and 2.75 for Pakatan, she added.

       Dr Yong said the survey also found that support from the Chinese community in Johor had risen to an average of 25% – an improvement compared to the 14th general election in 2018 when Chinese support for Barisan was between 12% and 15%.

       She noted that Malay support for Barisan was an average of 55%.

       Barisan used to garner up to 65% - 78% of the Malay votes prior to the last general election.

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

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

       He added that this was in line with findings that around 43.4% of the respondents had around three months of savings left to sustain themselves, with another 30.5% saying that they had no savings at all.

       Commenting on the matter, Dr Yong said the economic hardship in Johor was “real” and urgent assistance was needed to help locals.

       “A lot of people in Johor are dependent on traffic from Singapore and due to border controls, (issues of) unemployment and lack of business opportunities have become top – when it comes to picking a stable government for the next four or five years,” she said.

       “This time around, their choices will be dictated by basic ‘bread and butter’ issues and not some pie in the sky.”

       Dr Yong also said Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad remained a popular choice as Barisan’s chief minister candidate according to findings of the 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 right job,” she said.

       Dr Yong, who is Sabah MCA Wanita chief, added this was the best opportunity for Barisan to present a united front, noting that the opposition parties were fragmented and expected to clash in multi-cornered fights.

       “People are looking for political and economic stability like never before,” she said.

       Nominations for the Johor state election are on Feb 26 and polling on March 12.