Eligible voters are split over how to vote in the next general election when they cast two ballots - one for a constituency MP and the other for a party - but the opposition has three times more committed support than the government in the party list vote, according to a survey by the National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was conducted from Aug 1-5 by telephone interviews with 1,312 eligible voters aged 18 and over of various levels of education, occupations and incomes throughout the country to find out how they would vote in the next general election.
Under the amended election law, voters are to case two ballots - one to elect a constituency MP and the other for an MP on the party list. There are 400 constituencies, each electing one MP, and 100 party-list seats.
Asked whether they would vote for a constituency MP and a party-list MP from the same party, 44.82% said they were still undecided, 38.03% said they would vote for a constituency MP and a party-list MP from the same party; 16.85% said they would not vote for a constituency MP and a party-list MP from the same party; and 0.30% had no answer or were not interested.
Asked whether they wanted to see a new constituency MP after the next election, 30.41% said "definitely not", 28.28% said "definitely", 19.21% said "probably", 11.97% said "probably not"; and 10.13% had no answer or were not interested.
Asked how they would vote in the party-list system, 34.99% were still undecided; 32.39% would vote for a party in the opposition bloc; 21.34% would vote for a new party which had never had an MP in the House of Representatives; 10.82% would vote for a party in the government bloc; and 0.46% had no answer or were not interested.
