Ide Survey Significant Majority Opposed To Emergency Declaration

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An opinion survey conducted by Selangor government think tank Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE) indicates a significant majority surveyed are opposed to any declaration of emergency.
It should be noted that the Rakyat Malaysia Bersuara (Malaysian People Speak) survey was carried out electronically via WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Email, IDE's website and Telegram and linked to IDE's e-Survey System.
This survey involved Malaysians from various backgrounds and was carried out from 4pm to midnight yesterday.
As of midnight, 51,147 unique respondents have participated in this poll. In response to the key question, "do you agree with the declaration of emergency?", only 11,560 respondents (22.61 percent) answered "yes" while an overwhelming majority of 39,587 respondents (77.39 percent) answered "no".
According to IDE, the highest number of responses were obtained between 8pm to 10pm. The think tank said it "tracks" this collation of data every 30 minutes to check the validity of the data entry.
No further details on its survey methodology were provided.
The cabinet agreed on Friday to seek royal consent to declare an "emergency", ostensibly to fight Covid-19.
However, critics say Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is trying to avoid his fragile Perikatan Nasional government being defeated in the Dewan Rakyat over the Budget 2021 vote.
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong will convene a meeting with eight other Malay Rulers today where they are expected to discuss the cabinet's request to declare an "emergency", reportedly to facilitate the battle against Covid-19 pandemic.
The IDE survey also asked Malaysians what was the best option moving forward and provided three answers.
Some 16,617 respondents (32.49 percent) said that Muhyiddin remaining as prime minister was the best option, while 25,469 respondents (49.80 per cent) believed that appointing PRK president Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister was the way to go and only 9,061 (17.71 percent) wished for Parliament to be dissolved and fresh elections held.
IDE said it found that the majority of those who supported the declaration of emergency tended to support Muhyiddin while those who rejected the emergency call were more likely to back Anwar.
The IDE survey was released to the media by PKR Communications director Fahmi Fadzil, who is also Lembah Pantai MP.
Meanwhile, a petition on change.org calling on Malaysia's rulers and government to avoid implementing a state of emergency on the grounds of the psychological and economic damage it may cause has been signed by more than 20,000. - Mkini

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