Anwar insists his govt has the support of the Malays

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim today insisted that his coalition government had the support of the Malays at last year's general election, refuting previous data showing only a small percentage of the community behind his pact, Pakatan Harapan (PH). 

"It's not true that PH only has the support of 19% of the Malays," he said, citing the results of a survey conducted by a PKR research team. 

"There is no way that we could have won as many seats as we did if it were," he added at a press conference today. 

Analyst Bridget Welsh had said that PH only had the support of 11% of the Malay community. 

Perikatan Nasional (PN) meanwhile was said to have received 54% of the Malay vote, while the rest were won by Barisan Nasional (BN). 

PH won 82 seats at the Nov 19 polls last year, making it the biggest bloc in the Dewan Rakyat. 

PN won 74, while BN won 30. 

The current coalition government was formed on the back of cooperation between PH and BN, in addition to the major blocs in Sabah and Sarawak. 

Anwar said the findings of the PKR research team had come from their own data scientists, adding that they would be further refined. 

The PKR president said that overall, the coalition had won the support of 31% of the Malay community. 

He said Malay support for PH was low in states like Kelantan and Terengganu, but stood at over 50% in Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan. 

He added that Malay support for PH was the highest in the federal territories.

"If taken together with the rest of the coalitions in the government like BN, Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, it would be more than two-thirds of the votes at the 15th general election," he said.