TG PIAI POLLS | The Tanjung Piai by-election is still up in the air with two pollsters predicting conflicting outcomes.

Ilham Centre is expecting a "comfortable win" for BN on the back of PAS support and a shift in Chinese votes but Institut Darul Ehsan is predicting a strong lead for Pakatan Harapan.

Both research outfits conducted their surveys between November 9 and November 11.

Ilham Centre, in its survey of 394 respondents, found a large segment of PAS voters were prepared to back BN candidate Wee Jeck Seng in this Saturday's by-election.

"82 percent of voters who cast their votes for PAS in the last general election have no qualms to vote BN in the current by-election.

"It is clear that PAS supporters will comply with the directive of their party leadership...," it said.

It added that the fact Pakatan Harapan's candidate Karmaine Sardini serves as an imam did not help much among PAS supporters, with only 22 percent thinking that it is an advantage.

Furthermore, Ilham Centre said there will be an expected shift of support amongst Chinese voters from Harapan to BN with 59.1 percent citing non-fulfilment of the manifesto, 59 percent saying they are unhappy with the federal government's performance and 53 percent unhappy with the state government's performance.

However, Ilham Centre did not give the exact percentage of the expected swing.

Meanwhile, IDE believes the decline of Chinese support for Harapan will only be a modest three percent, down from 64 percent, according to The Malaysian Insight.

Contrary to Ilham Centre's findings, IDE feels Harapan can improve on its Malay support.

IDE put Harapan's Malay support at 48 percent, up from 32 percent in the last general election.

It also put BN's Malay support for 50 percent, down from 57 percent in the 14th general election.

Overall, IDE believes Harapan is ahead by nine percentage points.

Harapan narrowly captured the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat from BN, garnering 21,255 votes with a 524-vote majority, in the last general election.

PAS played spoiler in that election, gathering 2,962 votes.

However, PAS will not contest in the current by-election and has thrown its support behind BN.

The two frontrunners in the Tanjung Piai by-election are Wee, who is contesting under BN's logo, and Bersatu's Karmaine, who will contest under Harapan's banner.

The other candidates are Berjasa's Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz, Gerakan's Wendy Subramaniam and independent candidates Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abd Ghaffar.

Campaigning began on Nov 2 and Tanjung Piai voters will go to the polls this Saturday.

The by-election was called after Farid passed away from a heart attack in September, just three weeks before his 43rd birthday.