SHAH ALAM, Oct 6 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said a recent study that indicated a sharp drop in public support for the Pakatan Harapan government may not necessarily reflect the reality on the ground.

He said any sort of study or census undertaken by a private organisation can only ask a limited number of people and not the entire country.

"So from this, they make the assumption that support has dropped, which I think is not accurate,” Dr Mahathir said at the conclusion of a two-day retreat for Pakatan Harapan and Parti Warisan Sabah MPs and leaders at Hotel Saujana.

He added that on the eve of the 14th general election on May 9 last year, many ‘great experts’ had predicted that Pakatan would lose.

"But instead we won. And on support for Pakatan, I think the support on the parliamentary level is still there, so we are not going to be ousted,” he said.

Malaysiakini recently reported a source as saying the study was conducted by independent polling body Merdeka Center during the closed-door retreat, in which Pakatan had 87 per cent popularity in GE14, which significantly dropped to 35 per cent by the first half of this year.

Separately, when asked about his comments at a law conference in Petaling Jaya yesterday in which he said Pakatan has become a victim of its own electoral manifesto, Dr Mahathir said this was in part due to a lack of comprehensive understanding of the manifesto.

"It was pointed out that many of us did not read thoroughly our own manifesto, for example, we never promised to abolish the tolls.

"But this was genuinely taken as part of the manifesto. Many other things were also not read carefully, and sometimes we get carried away by the Opposition’s views,” he said.

He noted that the government has achieved 60 per cent of what was promised.

"Of course, not fully. For some, we have achieved 100 per cent, while for others it is much lower,” Dr Mahathir said.