Survey: BN to slash PKR's majority

PKR's winning majority will dip by about 2,000 votes tomorrow with a turnout of 85 percent, a UCSI university poll found.

UCSI Poll Research Centre founder Ngerng Miang Hong said that out of the 400 voters polled via phone and face-to-face interviews, only 54.25 percent said they will vote for PKR's Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Whereas 34.5 percent said they will vote for BN's Chew Mei Fun and 11.25 percent were undecided when surveyed on March 18-20 during the campaign period.

"If you split the undecided votes (with the same proportions of those supporting PKR and BN) we can see that BN has raised their support compared to 2013," he told reporters today.

He said that the bulk of those who said they will vote for Chew are Malays, at 54 percent.

However, the survey does not state why they are backing the BN.

In the 13th general election, 37 percent of Malay voters in Kajang voted for PKR, but the party now claims it has raised its support to 45 percent over the campaigning period.

PKR took 58 percent of the votes, BN 38 percent while Independent candidates garnered the rest in GE13.

Kajang has 48 percent Malay voters, 41 percent Chinese voters while the rest are Indians or other races.

PKR won the seat in 2013 with a 6,824-majority vote.

Campaign ends tonight

The private university found that up to 60 percent of those polled in Malay-majority areas of Sg Sekamat, Sg Kantan, Taman Delkma, Batu 10 Cheras and Kantan Permai back the BN.

Those polled in the majority Malay upper middle class in Saujana Impian were split between PKR and BN, as were those in Bandar Kajang, Taman Kota Cheras, Taman Mesra and Taman Kajang Baharu.

In Chinese-majority voting districts of Sungai Chua 1 to 5, over 70 percent of respondents back PKR.

Ngerng said support for PKR from Chinese majority areas remain the same despite Chew's candidacy as voters decide on party lines.

"The respondents say that she is a good person but one or two good people in a party does not help so the decision (to vote) goes to the other side," he said.

However, he said, 23 percent viewed that the new MCA leadership can win back Chinese support - a signal that the party can pull itself up from the doldrums if it digs its heels in for the long haul.

Only 36 percent of respondents said PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy conviction which rendered him ineligible to contest will affect their vote.

Similarly, a minuscule three percent said their vote is affected by the handling of the MH370 crisis.

Both issues have featured prominently in PKR's Kajang campaign, raising questions on whether the polls will be the referendum on alleged injustice PKR has called for.

According to Ngerng, this also shows that incidental issues or recent developments have "marginal" impact on voters compared with long-term partisan ties and support.

The 12-day Kajang by-election campaign ends midnight tonight.