Does MIC president S Samy Vellu have the power to axe members?

Yesterday, he vowed to give any member suspected of practicing money politics the boot first and shoot questions later.

"I will use my power as party president to expel them [...] I don't want to wait for investigations by the party disciplinary committee.

"Expel them first, then investigate," he said, in reference to possible vote buying during this weekend's divisional polls in Kedah and Selangor.

However, disciplinary committee chief G Vadiveloo today said even after a thorough investigation process, its ultimately up to the central working committee (CWC) to decide on expulsions.

Hard to prove

Complaints concerning party matters are first forwarded to the secretary-general, who decides whether there is merit for the case to be forwarded to the disciplinary committee, which then issues a show-cause letter to the accused.

The accused then has two weeks to respond. Should the reply be deemed insufficient, the accused would be made answerable to an inquiry.

A decision made by the inquiry panel would then be forwarded to the CWC for the final decision, Vadiveloo was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Yesterday, the CWC endorsed the sacking of Ipoh Timur party member N Irudiyanathan based on allegations of vote buying.

"Over the last six months we have recommended the expulsion of only two members but the scourge of money politics is hard to prove," said Vadiveloo.