GEORGE TOWN, April 27 — PKR secretary-general, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has taken a positive view of a recent poll by the public opinion research firm Merdeka Center, which showed a decline in people’s support for the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government.

Saifuddin, who is also the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, described the survey as good for the PH government to identify the issues that has brought about the lack of popular support.

However, he said he differed in terms of the percentage of the survey as the firm had previously predicted that the Barisan Nasional (BN) would continue to govern after the 14th general election, but the prediction was wrong.

"In terms of issues contributing to the decline in the percentage of support I receive in good faith. But in percentage terms, I have a slightly different opinion because the same agency made a prediction which turned out to be far off the mark.

"But this is good and positive for the PH government because these reminders are necessary so that we do not slip out of the people’s mandate when choosing our next day to be a government that is efficient and accountable,” he told reporters after opening the state-level Buy Malaysian Product Campaign Consumerism Carnival, here last night.

He said this when commenting on the recent poll by the independent survey company released yesterday that the PH government’s approval rating had declined to 39 per cent from 79 per cent from May 31, 2018 to March 11, 2019.

A survey involving 1,204 voters conducted throughout Malaysia between March 5 and 11 showed that only 34 per cent of respondents believed the country was headed in the right direction compared to 55 per cent in August 2018.

Besides, the same study found that only 46 per cent of the people were satisfied with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s leadership as prime minister. — Bernama