Pre- 13th national elections public political opinion in Kedah

Kedah is unique politically in that both the Barisan Nasional (BN) and PAS/PKR have strong support of the Malay voters thus making the Chinese and Indian voters the determining factor of the final outcome of a national election. In the 12th General Election (GE), the opposition alliance (Pakatan Rakyat) has won the state. Hence, this paper seeks to gauge the Kedahans’ public opinion on candidate and political party characteristics that will win their votes in the coming 13th GE. The analysis was based on the findings of a field study conducted in April 2012 which interviewed 600 voter respondents selected from 16 State Legislative Assembly (DUN) areas. The results revealed that voter respondents would vote for a leader who was friendly and people-oriented (91 percent); a political party which championed humanitarian causes including transparency, justice, human rights and anti-corruption (85 percent) and which also supported the 1Malaysia concept and transformation efforts of the Prime Minister (70 percent). The study also showed a likely swing to the BN although many also felt that the PR state government could retain their support . The BN was tipped to win at the federal level (73 percent).