PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has slammed former Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan for what he says is a “simplistic view” on why Umno fared badly at the last general election (GE15).
He said Ahmad’s claim that Umno would have done better if Ismail had dissolved Parliament and called for the general election after two successive state polls’ wins by Barisan Nasional (BN) in Melaka and Johor was not based on concrete data.
Ismail said when the calls were made to dissolve Parliament when he was prime minister, there were predictions that the Umno-led BN would win more than 112 seats and could form the government with a comfortable majority.
“The question is, was there any comprehensive study carried out before this prediction was made?
“In the end, BN is only left with 30 seats in the Dewan Rakyat now.”
Ismail said at that time, as the prime minister then, he received reports from various agencies that based on the mood among the voters on the ground, BN would be unable to win.
“This was because the economy was just recovering after the Covid-19 pandemic. By right, the economic recovery needed to continue,” he said in a statement.
Ismail was commenting on a statement by Ahmad earlier today that BN could have won GE15 if it had been called shortly after the Melaka and Johor state elections.
“Timing is very important in politics.
“Let the past be a reminder,” he said, adding that Umno won 21 out of 28 seats in Melaka in the November 2021 state polls, and 40 out of 56 seats in Johor in March 2022,” he said.
However, Ismail said BN lost in GE15 because its confidence in winning was not backed by data.
He said the results of state elections cannot be used as a barometer to see how well BN would do in parliamentary polls.
“The country’s politics is very dynamic. State and parliamentary elections are different.
“State polls focus on the performance of those governing the state while parliamentary polls are about national issues.
“The perception of BN as a whole was bad at that time.
“That is the real reason why BN lost.
“Its former secretary-general (Ahmad) relied on simplistic assumptions based on his own logic, without any statistical backing on BN’s support at the federal level,” he said. - FMT
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