Rising cost of living remains main worry among voters, say three research groups

SHAH ALAM - Voters wants rising cost of living, ailing economy, education and political instability to be resolved by the country's leaders, according to a survey.

Three research centres - Ilham Centre, O2 Research Malaysia (O2) and Huayan Policy Institute Center for Malaysian Chinese Studies (Huayan) conducted an online and face-to-face survey.

The two month research from August involving 1,622 respondents was carried out by Ilham Center researchers led by its Executive Director Hisommudin Bakar, head of operations Azlan Zainal, head of research Associate Professor Yusri Ibrahim and analytics was carried out by Jalaluddin Hashi.

The respondents were from various backgrounds, race, gender, education level and economy throughout the country.

The study found up to 44 per cent of respondents stating that restoring and improving the country's economy should be given priority by any party that form the government after GE15.

A total of 35 per cent of respondents urged the government to prioritise efforts to eradicate poverty and deal with the cost of living, while eight per cent want government to prirotise getting rid of corruption.

In addition, seven per cent of respondents want manifesto promises made by political parties fulfilled, in addition to bridging the gap between races (three per cent) as well as reforming institutions and government administration (one per cent).

Meanwhile, the results of the O2 survey involved 1,105 respondents of various races in urban and rural areas across the country.

Up to 57 per cent were concern over cost of living and the rising price of goods, while 49 per cent hope for job opportunities and higher salaries.

About 46 per cent of respondents also chose education, in addition to political stability (44 per cent) and currency rates and national debt (41 per cent).

Chinese voters, The Huayan survey was conducted through two research methods that is face to face involving 293 Chinese Bukit Gelugor, Ayer Hitam and Sungai Besar.

While the online survey involved all races and locations with only 2,061 Chinese respondents and 51 respondents of other races showed they were concern over cost of living, rising price of goods (78.6 per cent), education (75.1 per cent), political stability (72.9 per cent), interracial relationships (72.5 per cent) and national debt (68.6 per cent).