Anwar’s approval rating slips
A Q&A with Merdeka Center's Ibrahim Suffian.
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Bloomberg’s report yesterday cracked open the question Putrajaya has been trying to keep on a leash since February: when, not if.
Citing people with knowledge of the matter, the newswire reported that PM Anwar Ibrahim is weighing a general election by October — a year and a half before his term expires in early 2028 — provided his government isn’t forced to trim fuel subsidies any further before then.
The monthly subsidy bill has surged nearly tenfold to roughly RM7 billion since the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28, and Anwar’s strategists appear to have concluded that the best moment to face voters is before pump prices reset, not after.
To make sense of where the numbers actually sit, I had a quick chat this morning with Merdeka Center’s Ibrahim Suffian.
🔥 And, yes, we finally have an update on Anwar’s approval rating, with Ibrahim kind enough to share preliminary data from his latest survey ahead of its release.
We also got into the wider calculus that is politics: why Johor and Malacca are the leading edge of the snap-poll story rather than Putrajaya, why Malay swing voters are buying back into race-and-religion rhetoric, and what a Sheraton Move sequel would actually look like if Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan drops below 70 seats.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.