KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 — Nearly half of the Malaysians studied in a recent survey said they were confident that Democratic candidate Joe Biden will be elected as the next United States president, compared to just over one in 10 who placed their bets on incumbent Donald Trump.

Market research firm Ipsos found that 49 per cent of Malaysian respondents believed Biden would be the next US president.

In comparison, just 12 per cent believed Trump would be re-elected, while the remaining 39 per cent either said they did not know, or they preferred not to answer.

Ipsos’ report titled “A Global View of the United States Presidential Election” was published today, just as the 59th US presidential election is about to occur next week on November 3.

Malaysia’s respondents varied significantly with the global average, where only 39 per cent speculated that Biden would win, while 27 per cent chose Trump as the victor. The remainder of those surveyed did not pick either candidate.

Meanwhile, Malaysia’s neighbours in the Asian region — South Korea, India, and Japan — also showed a majority who believed Biden would win the elections, with 50 per cent, 39 per cent and 32 per cent of respondents saying so respectively.

When asked about serious risks to the US presidential election this year, Malaysians polled listed out the biggest threats, in order from the most problematic: vote buying, spreading of fake news about a candidate, and voter fraud and impersonation.

This was in line with most other countries besides the US.

American citizens shared the Malaysians’ fears, but were also significantly more concerned about efforts to misuse or destroy valid votes, and efforts to prevent people from voting.

These were the results of a report published by Ipsos, studying citizens in the US and 24 other countries including; Malaysia, South Korea, India, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Australia, Belgium, Great Britain, Netherlands and Russia.

The study was conducted online between September and October 2020, involving 1,000 adults in the US aged 18 to 74, and 17,507 adults across the other countries, aged 16 to 74 or 18 to 74.

Founded in France, Ipsos has presence in 90 markets with more than 18,000 employees worldwide.