Survey: Selangor voters prefer Hishammuddin over Zahid for PM
They also prefer a Pakatan Harapan-led government over a BN government for Selangor.
According to a poll by Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE), 32 per cent of the 1,761 respondents in the state favoured the Umno vice-president.
Zahid and the party’s Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin bagged 31 per cent and 28 per cent of the votes respectively. The survey was conducted between Aug 26 and Aug 30.
Umno Information Chief Annuar Musa and Umno Supreme Council Member Mustapa Mohamed scored the lowest with 4 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.
“Hishammuddin scored the highest among Malay and Chinese voters with 33 per cent for each race. Only 26 per cent of the Indian voters surveyed expressed preference for him.
“Zahid, on the other hand, received the highest support from Indian voters with 36 per cent,” IDE Deputy Chairman Mohammad Redzuan Othman revealed at a press conference at Carlton Hotel here this afternoon.
Meanwhile, a further breakdown of the survey showed that 38 per cent of respondents aged 21 to 30 expressed their support for Khairy, making him the most popular among the youth in Selangor compared with Zahid and Hishammuddin who scored 26 per cent and 28 per cent respectively.
The survey was done following rumours that a snap election would be held next year. Selangor is currently under the governance of a coalition of PKR, DAP and PAS, which were in the now defunct Pakatan Rakyat.
The DAP had recently called for a snap election in Selangor following the Election Commission’s redelineation exercise which it claimed had “butchered” the Selangor electoral map.
PKR Deputy President Mohamed Azmin Ali, who is Selangor menteri besar, however, dismissed the notion of a snap election.
The Pakatan Harapan-led government, according to the survey, remained the favourite over Barisan Nasional, with 59 per cent of the respondents expressing support for the Federal Opposition coalition.
Meanwhile, Hishammuddin, who is Umno vice-president, dismissed the survey finding that showed him as the preferred choice of Selangoreans to be the next prime minister.
He urged all parties not to easily believe such polls as it could be inaccurate.
“Even at the international level, many of the surveys are not accurate.
“It could also be that there are some irresponsible quarters who want to use the findings to create friction between leaders,” he said at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Armed Forces’ Wisma Bintara, Star Online reported.
“For me, all of this is not important. As long as we continue to approach the rakyat, in the end, they will determine the position of leaders.
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“If the rakyat think we can do our job, our position is secured,” the report quoted him as saying.