Although he ascended the throne under a cloud of controversy, Barisan Nasional's Zambry Abdul Kadir however appears to have made some significant inroads.

azlan Despite this, his ousted predecessor from Pakatan Rakyat Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin is still regarded by most Perakians as being the best man for the job.

According to the findings of a poll by Merdeka Centre, released today on the first anniversary of the political coup in the silver state, 46% backed Nizar while Zambry trailed closely behind with 44%.

Nizar had a significant edge over Zambry when it came to the Chinese community, where the duo polled 59% and 16% respectively

The BN menteri besar, on the other hand, led the race comfortably with regards to Malay support, securing 67 percent as opposed to Nizar’s 35 percent.

Merdeka Centre conducted the poll on a sample population of 805, comprising 382 Malays, 330 Chinese and 93 Indians. The poll was conducted between Jan 26 to February 3.

‘Is Perak heading right direction?’

The respondents were asked the question: ‘How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way Zambry is performing his job as the de facto chief minister of Perak’ and the question: ‘Similarly, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with Mohd Nizar as Pakatan menteri besar’.

The poll showed Zambry's approval comes largely from the Malays plus one half of the ethnic Indian electorate.

Nizar's support as mentioned came largely from the ethnic Chinese community, one half of the Indians and one-third of the Malay electorate.

NONE Out of the 805 respondents who are also voters in Perak, only 38 percent felt that the state was heading in the right direction while 44 percent felt otherwise.

The number of people agreeing that the state was heading in the right pathway has marginally increased from 31 percent in April 2009 to the 38 percent recorded at present.

The voters’ sentiments on the economy seemed mixed and ethnically-polarised whereby 42 percent said the present economic conditions were favourable

Posturing on the future, the voters were split with 42 percent being optimistic about the economy while 43 percent said they were not optimistic.

To a question on whether BN's takeover of Perak had benefitted the people, 44 percent of the respondents answered ‘yes’ while 39 percent felt otherwise. The remainder either did not make any response or replied ‘don't know’.

74 percent wants fresh polls

As the D-day for the Federal Court decision on the MB vs MB cases approaches on Tuesday, 74 percent of the sample called for state-wide fresh polls to resolve the political uncertainty plaguing the state.

Twenty percent do not want to see elections being called while the remaining six percent replied ‘don’t know’ or had no response.

NONE Of those who want fresh polls, 66 percent were Malay, 82 percent Chinese and 74 percent Indians.

Out of the total number of 805 polled, 65 percent felts the Perak political crisis was still relevant while 25 percent felt otherwise. On who to blame resulting for the present political imbroglio, 41 percent laid the blame squarely on BN, while 16 percent blamed Pakatan Rakyat and an equal 16 percent blaming both Pakatan and BN.

The poll also showed that 36 satisfied were satisfied with the Perak palace in dealing with the political problem while 35 percent said they were dissatisfied with the palace’s performance.

A year after the takeover, 60 percent of the respondents felt their right to democratically elect their own representatives was of primary importance as opposed to 28 percent who felt the state's ability to generate economic growth was more important.