Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad has expressed confidence that the federal opposition can make significant inroads in Sabah come 14th general election with support from a local party.

The former premier told a town hall session at Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya today that Harapan is not out to dominate local politics in Sabah and Sarawak, but rather would cooperate with local parties.

"We have in Sabah a party, which is very supportive of us.

"At this moment I think can we win half the number of the parliamentary seats in Sabah," Mahathir said.

The decision to initiate a cooperation, he added, was also based on an understanding that both Sabah and Sarawak have expressed concerns over excessive domination by peninsula-based parties.

"At this moment Sabah and Sarawak have become very strong territorially for their own areas," he said, attributing the sentiments to a loss of faith in BN at the federal level.

"They have expressed dislike for domination by peninsula political parties. If we go there it will look we are trying to dominate and we don't want that, we want to work together," he stressed.

While Mahathir did not mention the name of the local party, it is believed that Harapan is in talks with Parti Warisan Sabah, founded by former Umno vice-president Shafie Apdal.

Currently, the opposition only has four parliamentary seats (including Shafie's) out of 25 in Sabah.

Mahathir also said the issue of more autonomy for the two states can be negotiated, based on agreements made during the formation of Malaysia.

"But full autonomy, I think, would not be acceptable to a large number of Sabahans and Sarawakians.

"They don't want to be fully autonomous, (but) they do want more authority over the state," he added.