KUALA LUMPUR: Imprisoned former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has topped the list of most preferred candidates for prime minister among opposition leaders, followed by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.

This was based on a nationwide survey conducted by PKR-linked Invoke. The results were announced by PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli today.

According to Rafizi, only 34.6% of 17,962 registered voters surveyed chose a prime minister candidate from the opposition, while 31% cast their votes for Prime Minister Najib Razak. The remaining 34.4% chose not to respond.

The survey results listed nine opposition leaders as the choice of prime minister.

“Anwar, by far, leads everyone else with 23.5% of the votes, followed by Hadi with 17.6%,” Rafizi said.

PPBM chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad came third with 16.5%, followed by PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin (12.6%), Rafizi (10.7%), and PPBM deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir (8.4%).

PKR president and possible interim prime minister, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, bagged only 4.5% of the votes.

She came out above only PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali (3.5%) and the party’s vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar (2.6%).

However, according to Rafizi who is the coordinator for Invoke, Wan Azizah didn’t “fare badly” considering all the criticism against her, especially following her admission to being a “seat warmer” for Anwar.

“She pulled a respectable 4%. That’s why I’ve been consistent in saying that Wan Azizah can be the interim prime minister.

“I hope this puts a perspective to those who say that Malaysia is not ready to have a female prime minister because it’s quite obvious the rest of the country does not necessarily agree (with that statement).”

Rafizi also said Anwar had managed to top the list as he had the support of all races, unlike Hadi whose supporters were only Malays.

This is evident in the survey results, where with the Malay respondents who chose an opposition candidate, Hadi came out tops with 29% and Mahathir came second with 18%, followed by Muhyiddin (15%), and Anwar (14%).

But among the Chinese respondents, 35% picked Anwar, while none voted for Hadi. Rafizi was listed as the second highest with 19%.

As for Indian respondents, Anwar again came on top with 68%, followed by Muhyiddin with 15%. None chose Hadi.

The survey, which was conducted from Feb 6 this year to May 23, came just days after ties between PKR and its newest ally, PPBM, soured following an incident at the party’s recent congress.

There, PKR delegates raised placards calling for Anwar to become Malaysia’s “7th prime minister” as PPBM leaders looked on.

“The survey shows that PPBM leaders have higher support. PKR looks (like it has scored) lower.

“But when you list them individually, no opposition leader is actually that far ahead of the others,” Rafizi said.

It is important to note that no one from DAP and Amanah was listed as an option on the survey.

Asked about this, Rafizi said it was done on purpose as it was less likely that the top leaders from the two parties were going to be named as prime minister-designate ahead of the next general election.

“This is an accepted political situation now,” he said, adding that since Invoke had to pay for “every second spent on the survey”, there was no point in “unnecessarily lengthening the list”.