PETALING JAYA，Nov 16: Satisfaction with the government has risen sharply since Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his Perikatan Nasional coalition took over Putrajaya, according to a recent poll.
Part two of Emir Research’s “Pulse From The Ground: Quarterly Poll Third Quarter 2020”, was conducted in August, with findings released today. It involved more than 2,000 respondents from across the country.
Satisfaction in the government rose sharply compared with the first quarter, from a Government Satisfaction Index of 0.45 then to 0.67 now, a rise of 49%.
These scores were calculated by asking respondents to rank their satisfaction with each federal minister before averaging the results.
The report said this is likely due to the respondents’ endorsement of the government’s efforts to “balance lives and livelihoods” by announcing stimulus packages while battling to control Covid-19 infections.
Those polled also overwhelmingly picked Muhyiddin as their preferred prime minister, garnering 65% of the vote. Dr Mahathir Mohamad was a distant second getting support from 10% of those surveyed, with Anwar Ibrahim in third place with 8%.
Muhyiddin was backed by strong support from both genders, age groups, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds.
However, despite Muhyiddin getting the nod as the preferred prime minister, PPBM was only selected by 8.3% of those surveyed as the party they supported, behind PAS’ 15.5% and Umno’s emphatic 42.8% of the votes.
Mahathir’s Pejuang, despite not formally being registered, came in fourth with 6.2%.
When asked about the most important factor dictating their vote, 29% of those surveyed credited the person’s principles.
Following close behind were party loyalty and affinity for a particular politician, which registered 25% and 24% of responses respectively.
