3 out of 4 Singaporeans prefer Heng Swee Keat over Chan Chun Sing as next Prime Minister: Yahoo Poll

Yahoo News Singapore poll found that three times as many Singaporeans preferred the finance minister to be the next leader of the country, over Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing

• 75% of Singaporeans preferred Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat as PM, compared to 25% for Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing
• 60% viewed Heng positively compared to 44% for Chan
• 62% would be happy with either Heng or Chan as PM
• A small proportion of respondents have not heard of either Ministers

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 25 January 2019 - Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat is the preferred choice for Prime Minister for the vast majority of Singaporeans if they had to pick between him and Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chung Sing, according to a survey commissioned by Yahoo News Singapore.

75 per cent of Singaporeans favoured Minister Heng compared to 25 per cent who backed Minister Chan.

The survey of 916 citizens was conducted by Blackbox Research from 14 to 26 December last year, the month after Heng was appointed as the first assistant secretary general of the ruling People's Action Party and Chan was appointed second assistant secretary general.

It found that the majority of those polled -- 62 per cent -- said they were happy with either Heng or Chan as the next prime minister, while 38 per cent said they would prefer someone else.

When asked of their impressions of the two leaders, 60 per cent of respondents viewed Minister Heng positively, while 44 per cent of them had either a "quite positive" or a "very positive" impression of Minister Chan.

A slightly larger percentage viewed Minister Chan negatively, at 27 per cent compared to 17 per cent for Minister Heng -- and about a quarter of respondents had no opinions of the two men, at 25 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively.

Though political succession remains a focus for Singaporeans as we approach the 4th Generation of leaders, 4 per cent of Singaporeans said that they have never heard of Minister Chan and 2 per cent have not heard of Minister Heng.

The Blackbox Research surveyed Singaporeans from the age of 15 to over 50. Those aged 50 and above accounted for 40 per cent of the respondents, 28 per cent came from the 35 to 49 age category, and 24 per cent were from the 25 to 34 age group. Those in the 15 to 24 age group comprised 8 per cent of respondents.

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