Public Opinion Polls in Malaysia: Challenges and Opportunities in the Post-pandemic Era

This chapter discusses the development of public opinion polls in Malaysia, especially those related to politics and elections in the state. It traces the early attempts at public opinion polls and their relatively recent development in estimating electoral outcomes in Malaysia. In analysing the efforts, the chapter relates the conduct of opinion polls with changing trends in Malaysia’s elections, particularly the shift from a dominant party system to one of two-coalition systems since the 12th general elections (GE12) in 2008. The chapter also discusses the role of the various actors who are involved in opinion polling, and the usual contents in such polls. It evaluates the possibility and difficulty of the polls in estimating outcomes of elections. In view of the new norms developing since the spread of COVID-19 in 2020, the chapter also explores the challenges and opportunities of public opinion polls in articulating public sentiment.