After being accused of making a U-turn on Pakatan Harapan’s election promises within weeks of unveiling it, chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad insisted that all the coalition’s promises can be delivered.

"The promises we made in our manifesto had been studied in depth on whether we can deliver it or not. There are things that are popular but we could not deliver, so we could not promise.

"What we promised in the manifesto are what is doable," he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

He was asked to comment on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's speech earlier today, where he mocked the opposition for admitting that they could not deliver their election promises just 17 days after launching their manifesto on March 8.

Najib's remarks appear to be based on Singapore's Sunday Times report on March 25, which reportedly quoted Mahathir saying that Harapan may not be able to fulfill its promises.

“Sometimes, I feel that we may not be able to fulfil our promises. Our party, our coalition partners, you know they are very socialistic. They like to give things to people.

“I told them it cannot be done. You want to remove all the road tolls? I say, look, we have to maintain the roads. You have to build more roads.

“Where do you get the money if you’re trying to maintain this road by yourself? But they want popularity, so they prefer to promise this thing,” Mahathir reportedly said.

When asked whether he is accusing Sunday Times of misreporting his comments, Mahathir clarified he was merely voicing his misgivings about Harapan's promise to abolish tolled highways.

"Amongst ourselves, there are some differences in opinion, but I have some experience with tolls. I was of the opinion that we cannot promise it.

"That's why perhaps when I was asked, I could not accept that we are going to do away with tolls. Without tolls, we could not maintain the roads, and we cannot build new roads. We tell the private sector to do it, but the private sector is not going to do it unless the could get returns.

"That's why I was concerned, and what I said was merely my concerns," he said