Muhyiddin most popular choice for Umno No 2

Should the Umno polls be opened to every Malaysian, vocal Umno veteran, Muhyiddin Yassin will be the man of choice for the party’s deputy presidency according to a survey conducted by the Merdeka Center.
The survey, conducted on 1,031 registered voters throughout Peninsular Malaysia, found that 52 percent of them thought that Muhyiddin was the best man for the job.
His counterparts didn’t do so well in the popularity contest as the survey found that only 11 percent thought that Malacca Menteri Besar Ali Rustam should be picked for the post while only 7 percent thought the post should go to Selangor Umno chief Muhammad Muhd Taib.
Amongst the 1,031 respondents of the telephone survey, 57 percent were Malay Malaysians while the Chinese made up 31 percent and Indians 12 percent.
Muhyiddin is even more popular among the Malays.
Of the 592 Malay respondents, 61 percent supported Muhyiddin, compared to 14 percent for Ali Rustam and a mere 8 percent for Muhd Taib.
As for the vice-president’s post, former youth leader and Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein emerged as the most preferred candidate with a 17 percent approval. This was followed by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Ahmad Zahid Hamidi with 13 percent and Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Shafie Apdal with 8 percent.
In the party’s Youth chief race, the son of former president and prime minister Mukhriz Mahathir emerged as the favoured candidate for the post. He bagged 52 percent of the survey votes.
His rivals, Khairy Jamaluddin and former Selangor menteri besar Mohd Khir Toyo both shared 11 percent support for the post.
Mukhriz is even more popular amongst the Malay respondents with 58 percent of support, while 15 percent back Khairy and Mohd Khir garnered 13 percent.
In the contest for the Wanita Umno chief’s post, 51 percent favoured Shahrizat over incumbent Rafidah Aziz, who only received 26 percent of support.
In the race for the Puteri Umno chief’s post, the survey indicated the wing's information chief Datuk Shahniza Shamsuddin as the most popular choice with 26 percent support.
"This survey indicates the Malaysian public’s keen interest in the Umno elections. They also have strong views about the problems affecting the party," said Merdeka Center in a statement issued today.
It is interesting to note that the survey also found that most Malaysians want to have a say in the election of Umno leaders.
Some 79 percent of those surveyed said that "Umno delegates must take into consideration the views of ordinary Malaysians in determining the Umno leadership line-up as it influences national politics". The survey reveals the different expectations of non-Malays and Malays - the most important for non-Malays is for Umno leaders to "be fair to all", while for Malays it is that party leaders must be "honest and trusted".
"The survey reveals that a plurality of Malaysians (19 percent) want the party to treat all races fairly. Among Malay voters, 19 percent want the party to continue leading the nation and 15 percent want the country’s administration to be further improved," read the statement.
On the perception of issues affecting Umno and their hopes for the party, the survey found that 61 percent of those surveyed thought that corruption was the most serious problem affecting the party.
Thirteen percent thought that Umno’s problem lay in its failure to understand the condition of the people while 6 percent thought that Umno was too ‘racially based’ and 6 percent felt that the party was faltering due to weak leadership.
"Asked what criteria of leadership they considered important, 21 percent of those polled cited "being just to the rakyat", "close to the people" (11 percent), "being honest" (9 percent), "religiously educated" (8 percent), and "being responsible and free from corruption" (5 percent)," read the statement further.
In an immediate reaction, a Khairy supporter said a proliferation of surveys was expected as the Umno elections inched closer.
The Merdeka Center's findings, for instance, sharply contradicted other surveys, that include University of Malaya's study, "which reflected a closer contest", said the supporter who wanted to remain anonymous.

tunku : this is the view of people out there but the delegates will decide when the time comes.The delegates should take the people's view into consideration. if they love umno and want it to survive they should take the majority's wish seriously. if in umno's research done recently with some of the delegates, ali rustam is leading for no 2 job and kj for umno youth chief.this is not the choice of people out there which can vote comes next GE. you vote the wrong people in, umno will be in trouble and nothing can be done.you have to blame yourself for that.hope this coming umno's election will be the last for delegates to vote,for the next one, all the members can vote,then only umno will have leaders accepted by majority.