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KT by-election: Voters care more about candidate's mettle than party
14-Jan-2009, New Straits Times

KUALA TERENGGANU: A poll by an independent research organisation has revealed that the majority of voters in the Kuala Terengganu by-election think that a candidate matters more than his party's ideology, its leaders or current issues.

This is despite concerted attempts by Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat to frame the contest as one between two coalitions with competing ideologies.

The poll by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research also revealed a marked difference between how Malay and Chinese voters in the parliamentary constituency felt over various issues, such as the direction the state was moving in and which coalition was better at taking care of them.

The survey showed that 46 per cent of Malays and 56 per cent of the Chinese feel that the by-election is an opportunity to force BN, which rules the federal and state governments, to change for the better.

The centre interviewed 527 voters between Jan 7-11. They comprised 408 Malay and 119 Chinese respondents.
Merdeka Centre head Ibrahim Suffian said the respondents were interviewed over the telephone and picked on a random basis along gender and ethnic lines and according to Kuala Terengganu's four state constituencies.

An indication of how the constituency's 80,000-plus voters will sway on Saturday can be gauged by how 77 per cent of those polled said that quality of the candidate was "very important".

This criterion was above party capability at 67 per cent and current issues (55 per cent).

"Upholding Islam's position" topped the list of most important issues for the Malays (at 29 per cent) followed closely by bringing down the price of goods (24 per cent) and bringing development to Terengganu (16 per cent).

About 53 per cent of the Chinese respondents cited "treating non-Malays equally" as the issue closest to their heart.

Half of the Chinese polled (50 per cent) felt that hudud was an important issue in the by-election.

BN was given the thumbs-up by 60 per cent of the Malays polled, who felt that the ruling coalition was more capable of taking care of their community, compared with 26 per cent of the Chinese.

However, the Malays were split on whether there was a need to elect another member of parliament from Pakatan Rakyat.