'Overconfidence in winning polls could lead to our own downfall', says Ismail Sabri

KUALA PILAH - Barisan Nasional (BN) members must consider the party an underdog in the state elections to ensure the grassroot machineries continue to work hard on the field.

Former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said overconfidence in winning the state polls could lead the party to its own undoing.

"Sometimes when you are overconfident (for example), there are 10 voters that you should go meet, but if you don't think that these 10 votes would not affect the victory, it would eventually lead to the party’s loss.

"I think this happened before in the Pekan Parliament; there was an Orang Asli village with five voters, and we said that it wouldn’t make the party lose, but we lost because of the five votes.

"That’s why I say we must feel like we are the underdogs to ensure the machinery works harder to ensure victories," he said when met after a campaign meeting with the Johol candidate on Monday.

He was present at the Johol state assembly to follow the Jelajah Mesra programme with BN candidate Saiful Yazan at Ayer Mawang.

When asked about his predictions for the polls, the Bera Umno division chief refused to make any comments.

"I don’t want to make any predictions; if I say it's five to one, it would demoralise the machinery and cause them (the opposition) to feel empowered; it has its pros and cons," he said.

Previously, the media reported former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad predicted Perikatan Nasional (PN) would easily win five to one in the elections for six states on Aug 12.

The predictions of the Malay Proclamation chairman were based on the sentiment changes seen among senior citizen voters, primarily those outside of cities.