Young Voters Expected To Decide Sabah Polls Results Research Centre

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Young voters are expected to be a determining factor in the success of any party contesting in the upcoming 17th Sabah state election, Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE) Research Centre chairperson Redzuan Othman said.
Based on a study conducted by the centre, about 27 percent of voters in Sabah are fence-sitters, and their choices would depend more on the chance of a believable future, and not loyalty to any political party, he added.
“In these next two weeks, it is very important and critical that every contesting party provide a convincing narrative to youth to vote for them.
“The young generation does not have loyalty, they have no loyalty to support the party just because their father did.
“It doesn’t work that way,” he said at a media conference on a study titled “Landscape of Public Perception for Sabah’s Prosperity and Development Study” at the Sabah International Convention Centre today.
The study was conducted with the cooperation of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and Social and Community Research Association (PPSK) research groups.
Institut Darul Ehsan Research Centre chairperson Redzuan OthmanThe researchers included Abdullah Bade from UMS’ Science and Technology Faculty and Murnizam Halik from UMS’ Psychology and Social Work Faculty.
Also involved in the research were IDE executive director Amidi Abdul Rahman, research and analytics director Khairul Arifin Munir and data analytics director Kamarul Bahrin Zahid.
Pay attention to issues
Redzuan said in efforts to woo young voters, political parties need to pay attention to issues related to youth and how they tackle these issues will determine the tendencies of fence-sitters.
“The campaign period is only a mechanism but how to convince voters to come to the ballot and vote for a party, that will decide the success of a party’s candidate,” he said.
The study included the main face-to-face survey in 73 state constituencies in the state, involving all levels of ages, genders and ethnicities from Aug 21 to 29, followed by field observation from August till Nov 1 involving 2,488 respondents.
According to him, the study’s results found that 66.5 percent of respondents choose based on candidate, while 33.5 per cent choose based on party.
“The candidate factor will refer to several major items, including the candidate’s contribution to the local community and their personality.
“Those using political parties as a basis for voting will use the party’s struggle, performance and influence on family, friends and communities as reference,” Redzuan said.
The study also identified three major local issues of concern to Sabah voters, water and electricity disruption, road and infrastructure problems, the rising costs of goods and cost of living.
“However, all Sabahans acknowledge current efforts by the state and federal government as a major synergy to ensure that it can be realised and fixed in stages,” he added.
- Bernama

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