BN govt has advantage over opposition’
Graph shows the percentage of respondents satisfied in urban and rural areas. — Photo by Merdeka Center
Graph shows Sarawakians’ perception towards economic issues. — Photo by Merdeka Center
According to the latest voter opinion survey conducted by Merdeka Center, this comes as the issues that drive the coming election remain rooted on fundamental pocket book issues, such as cost of living and jobs.
This was on the back of demand for provision of basic infrastructure services in the rural constituencies of Sarawak.
“In our opinion, this provides latent advantage to the incumbent state ruling party compared to the opposition as the former remains best placed to resolve such issues compared to the latter,” it said in a statement yesterday.
The survey noted that economic issues – such as worries over the rising cost of living, economic hardship, jobs and related matters – were reported by 33 per cent of Sarawakian voters as their top concern.
This was followed by the need for development gaps to be fulfilled (28 per cent), state administration (8 per cent) and public safety issues (5 per cent).
In the same survey, 55 per cent of the respondents felt that that Sarawak was headed in the right direction during the January 2016 survey. This echoed similar sentiments felt earlier in April 2015 (at 56 per cent majority) and December 2013 (59 per cent).
Among the reasons voters felt positive on the state’s direction include visible improvement in the state’s development and infrastructure.
On the other hand, 32 per cent of respondents felt the state was headed in the wrong direction, principal reason for their negative assessment hinged on economic concerns (rising cost of living, jobs) and gaps in the provision of infrastructure in rural areas of the state.
The survey found that voters had mixed views about the economy, whereby 44 per cent gave a favourable response but 50 per cent opined that current conditions remained unfavourable.
Looking at financial management, 52 per cent of survey respondents reported that they were able to make ends meet but 45 per cent admitted to problems meeting with their financial obligations.
Voters were very negative in respect to job opportunities (unfavourable at 60 per cent) and prices of consumer goods (unfavourable at 81 per cent).
The survey also found that voters were cautious about the outlook of the state economy, with 45 per cent reporting pessimism and 43 per cent remaining optimistic.
“Despite the guarded sentiments about the economy, a majority (55 per cent) of voters were satisfied with the state government’s handling of the economy,” said Merdeka Center.
In terms of fulfilment of expectations, a large chunk of voters were satisfied with the state government’s action on issues such as protecting religious freedom (79 per cent), providing basic amenities (32 per cent) and education (34 per cent) but were more dissatisfied on areas such as job provision, public transport and eradicating corruption in public sector.
Meanwhile, a majority (54 per cent) of voters felt that Sarawak had not been fairly treated by the federal government in the past.
This sentiment is relatively higher among younger and non-Bumiputera voters as well as among those with higher household incomes.
Likewise, the survey also found that respondents were divided as to whether Sarawak had been better off or worse off being in Malaysia.
The survey also found that voters were also split in their support for autonomy advocacy group ‘Sarawak for Sarawakians’ (S4S).
Support for S4S was high at 65 per cent among Chinese voters, the survey revealed, but was diametrically opposed by Malay voters (62 per cent opposing) while the Non-Muslim Bumiputera community has its sentiments split 48 per cent for, 28 per cent do not support and 24 per cent don’t know/refused.
The survey was carried out by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research between Jan 20-26, 2016 to gauge voters’ perceptions of current developments in Sarawak in the lead up to the state elections.
A total of 815 registered voters comprising 27 per cent Muslim Bumiputera, 38 per cent Non-Muslim Bumiputera and 36 per cent Chinese respondents which was reflective of electoral profile of Sarawak was interviewed via telephone.
Respondents were selected on the basis of random stratified sampling along age group, ethnicity, gender and state constituency. The poll was funded by Merdeka Center’s internal financial resources.
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