By Sulyn Chong
SHAH ALAM, Nov 19 — The 15th Malaysia General Election Survey conducted by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research revealed that 90 per cent of respondents who are reported as most likely to vote would still be inclined to do so, even in the face of strong weather during the polling day today.
In view of the ongoing rainy season, the pollster asked voters whether inclement weather would affect their ability to turn up and vote.
The research body projected the overall turnout rate to be 77 per cent, with a small margin of difference across ethnic groups with Malays charting at 78 per cent, Chinese at 76 per cent, and Indians at 75 per cent.
“Voter turnout is much more difficult to discern. However, we asked voters to rate their certainty of coming out to vote on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being ‘extremely certain’.
“Although there may be a certain margin of error in these figures, the overall trend indicates a rising interest in the election and a growing intention to vote,” said the Merdeka Centre.
The survey was conducted from November 3 to November 18, with a total of 1,203 respondents aged 18 and above. It is comprised of 62 per cent Malay, 29 per cent Chinese, and nine per cent Indian, who were interviewed via fixed lines and mobile phones.
Respondents were selected based on random stratified sampling along age group, ethnicity, gender, as well as the states where they vote, and were sampled from each of the 165 parliamentary constituencies in Peninsular Malaysia.
It is important to note the voter turnout and party choice estimates listed in the results were derived from the survey data collected from November 16 until noon yesterday.
