Survey: Ismail Sabri, Anwar level as Malaysians’ choice for PM

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16 — Umno’s Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Pakatan Harapan chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim are “neck-to-neck” as the desired choice of voters to be Malaysia’s next prime minister, a survey by Endeavour-MGC has said.

In a statement dated today, Endeavour-MGC said it had polled 1,068 registered voters in peninsular Malaysia who were randomly selected between November 7 and 15, which it noted was three full days before polling day on November 19.

It said this gives an acceptable margin of error of three per cent based on the number of registered voters in peninsular Malaysia as of June.

According to Endeavour-MGC, 19 per cent of respondents now picked Ismail Sabri as their preference to be PM.

“In terms of the people’s choice for PM, Ismail Sabri’s previous lead in October has been overtaken by Anwar Ibrahim (23 per cent).

“A closer third now is Muhyiddin Yassin at 19 per cent, with KJ up to per cent and Hishammuddin Hussein staying at 5 per cent. Abdul Hadi Awang and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi are 5 per cent apiece,” the statement said.

Based on the statement, Endeavour-MGC was contrasting this peninsula-only survey finding to the findings of its earlier survey of voters nationwide, which it had completed on October 20. In its statement today, it did not say how many respondents were polled in the survey completed in October.

It said the nationwide survey had found 22 per cent of the voters who participated in the survey as preferring Ismail Sabri to be prime minister after the 15th general election, followed by Anwar at 20 per cent, while Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president and Perikatan Nasional chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was preferred by 16 per cent of the survey respondents, Umno’s Khairy Jamaluddin (6 per cent) and Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein (5 per cent), PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang (3 per cent) and Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (2 per cent).

Based on the statement, the results of the November survey showed that 29 per cent of the peninsular Malaysia respondents predict Anwar would be prime minister after GE15, followed by Ismail Sabri (24 per cent), Muhyiddin (17 per cent), Khairy (11 per cent), Abdul Hadi (10 per cent), and Ahmad Zahid (5 per cent).