Ismail Sabri defends decision on GE15
This was in view of former Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan's claim that the decision was the main reason for BN's poor performance in the 15th general election held last November...
Former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has defended his decision not bowing to pressure to hold elections immediately after last year’s Johor state election.
This was in view of former Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan's claim that the decision was the main reason for BN's poor performance in the 15th general election held last November.
In a statement today, Ismail Sabri said although BN performed well in the Malacca (Nov 2021) and Johor elections (March 2022), there was no indication the success could be replicated at the national level due to the country’s political dynamics.
"As the prime minister at the time (between Aug 2021 and Nov 2022) I received reports from various agencies which showed that BN was not able to win (the federal election immediately after the Johor election)," said Ismail Sabri.
He said at the time, the economy was still in recovery mode following the Covid-19 pandemic and more effort should be put in before calling for an election.
"Our efforts were bearing fruit. The economy grew by 8.7 percent in 2022 - the best in Southeast Asia and among the best in the world.
"However, that effort could not continue due to continued pressure to dissolve Parliament," he said.
Ismail Sabri also mentioned that state elections are vastly different from federal polls because state elections involve local issues.
"Moreover, public perception towards BN as a whole was not good at the time," the Bera MP added.
After months of pressure by Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his allies, Ismail Sabri relented and dissolved Parliament last October.
The election decimated Umno, leaving it with just 30 seats in the Dewan Rakyat and failing to form any state governments on its own.
Ahmad views not backed by facts
Training his guns on Ahmad, Ismail Sabri said the former was among those who sought the dissolution of Parliament based on simplistic views that were not backed by facts.
He said when Umno went into the federal elections, the assumption at the time was BN was able to form a federal government on its own by winning 112 seats.
"This is the real reason for BN's failure. We had a former Umno secretary-general who only made simplistic assumptions based on his own logic without statistics on BN's support at the national level," said Ismail Sabri.
