An opinion survey conducted by Selangor government think tank Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE) saw 75 percent of respondents believing that Dr Mahathir Mohamad should not stay on as prime minister past two years.

Within that 75 percent, 44 percent said he should relinquish his position within six months from now, 36 percent said he should not stay on for more than two years, while 20 percent wanted him to step down immediately.

Meanwhile, only 22 percent of respondents said there was no need at all for Mahathir to step down as prime minister, according to IDE’s press statement today detailing the results of the study.

Mahathir had promised before last year’s general election that he would hand over power to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim within a few years of his prime ministership.

Though he had originally said he would do so within two years, the deadline has become unclear even as he insisted he would still make way for Anwar to become prime minister.

IDE also asked their respondents who they believed should succeed Mahathir as prime minister, and Anwar topped the list at 45 percent.

Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin came in second with 16 percent while PKR deputy president Azmin Ali came in third with 11 percent.

Meanwhile, one percent of respondents wanted Amanah president Mohamad Sabu to become prime minister after Mahathir.

The other 27 percent was made up of other politicians such as former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak with six percent, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang with three percent, Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan with three percent, and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng with one percent.

The survey was conducted over three days from June 28 to 30 this year. A total of 1,597 respondents representative of the 222 parliamentary seats in Malaysia were interviewed face-to-face by trained enumerators.