BN’s integrity, Pakatan’s infighting key factors for polls, survey shows

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 — For Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the issues of integrity

A recent survey has shown integrity will be a key consideration for voters. — File pic

and in-fighting will determine if voters would decide to vote against them, a University of Malaya (UM) survey has shown.

"For Pakatan, the issue of perbalahan (infighting). For BN, the issue of integrity.

"They are looking from the perspective of governance actually," Prof Datuk Dr Mohammad Redzuan Othman, the director of the University of Malaya Centre of Democracy and Election (UMCEDEL), told reporters today.

In the centre’s recent survey with a sample size of 1,409 voters, 78 per cent said integrity and abuse of power by BN leaders would be an issue that would affect voters’ support towards the ruling coalition.

For hot issues over the past year, such as the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal, the controversial Lynas rare-earth plant and crime, those who said they would cause a drop in support for BN stood at 62 per cent, 61 per cent and 51 per cent respectively.

A whopping 95 per cent of Chinese voters polled were concerned about integrity.

Other key issues for the Chinese community are the increase of the nation’s debt attributed to the alleged weak management of the economy at 89 per cent, while the Lynas plant and increase in the prices of goods were at 86 and 82 per cent respectively.

For PR, 55 per cent of the 1,409 voters polled said that disagreement among the three parties within the opposition pact - PKR, PAS and DAP - would cause their support to dwindle.

The pact has been criticised by its political rivals for what is alleged to be its failure to agree over issues such as the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims.

The UMCEDEL survey also showed that PR was leading in Selangor and Penang at 53 per cent and 59 per cent respectively, while BN stood at 29 per cent and 37 per cent respectively.

Perak appears to be up for grabs, with BN and PR almost evenly matched at 39 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.

PR still leads in Kelantan, while it stands at 46 per cent for Kedah.

The federal opposition won the above five states in Election 2008 in an unprecedented polls victory, but lost Perak to BN when several PR state lawmakers defected.

The nationwide survey titled “Polling Trends in the Run-up to the 13th General Election” was carried out from December 26, 2012 to this January 11 through both face-to-face and phone interviews.

The respondents were drawn from a diverse range in terms of race, age, level of education, occupation and salary.

Election 2013 is expected to be intensely fought, with BN seeking to gain a two-thirds parliamentary win and PR aiming to wrest control of Putrajaya.