Malaysias main ruling party has barred a senior politician who was running to be the countrys deputy prime minister from party polls for "breaking campaign rules" in an effort to clean up its image. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the linchpin of the coalition that has ruled Malaysia for 51 years, said on Tuesday that Mohd Ali Rustam, the chief minister of Malacca state, would not be allowed to run in party polls next week.
"He was found guilty and has been barred from contesting or being chosen for the post of deputy president of UMNO," said Ahmad Rithaudeen, chairman of the disciplinary board. Mohd Ali was, however, not removed from his state post.
The move came just a week before party polls to pick UMNOs top leaders, after which Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak is due to become premier. The post that Mohd Ali was running for by tradition carries the deputy prime ministers job. The party disciplinary board also issued a warning to outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawis son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, standing as the partys youth chief, for a similar offence, although he was not barred from contesting the polls.
UMNO has promised to crack down on corruption as part of an effort to win back Malaysian voters after the 2008 elections when it lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority and the opposition ended up controlling five of Malaysias 13 states. Last week Mohamad Norza Zakaria, a member of UMNOs top decision making body, was charged in court with vote buying ahead of the party polls.
Comments
Comments are closed.