The Umno disciplinary board will not take any action against party vice-president Mohd Ali Rustam for telling the People's Progressive Party (PPP) to leave the coalition for questioning Umno.

Board chairperson Tengku Ahmad Rithauddeen Tengku Ismail said it has not received any reports from Umno members against Mohd Ali's conduct when officiating a PPP state convention in Melaka last month.

On Oct 15, Mohd Ali, who is Melaka chief minister, had told PPP members to leave the Barisan Nasional coalition if they were not satisfied. He was speaking on PPP's long standing request for additional seats in the coming general election.

"PPP can leave BN. All of you can leave. Either today or tomorrow. Why wait until the general election? What's there to wait for?" he told a stunned audience that included PPP president M Kayveas. Several members left the hall in protest.

Although the Prime Minister's Department had carried out an internal probe over the matter, no action was taken against Mohd Ali.

Only Umno members can file reports

Tengku Rithauddeen added that BN components were not able to lodge reports against Umno members for breaching the code of ethics or for money politics.

"The board's jurisdiction only allows for Umno members to lodge the reports. We don't have such an encompassing disciplinary board for BN yet," he told a press conference at the Umno headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

During the PPP state convention, Mohd Ali had told reporters not to publish his remarks saying it was meant only for the delegates.

A source within PPP had said that Mohd Ali's conduct would be discussed at the Umno supreme council meeting and did not discount the possibility of a censure .

At the party's annual general meeting on Oct 2,1 Kayveas pointed out the incident to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"Datuk Seri, this is totally against Islam Hadhari," he had said in his speech to Abdullah, who was the guest of honour.

Endorsement of candidates

In another development, Tengku Rithauddeen announced that the board "greatly discourages" the endorsement of candidates by division incumbents for the party's annual nominations process.

Called the G-7, each branch is represented by seven delegates at the annual general assembly. Over 3,000 delegates are expected to attend the party's AGM next Monday.

"We no longer want the division chief or the state liaison chief to endorse any candidates. No candidates should be given any advantage," he said.

"We are issuing this new warning and we want members to take this seriously. We will act in a firm and just manner without fear and favour," he added.

He also announced that a newly created investigative panel has completed its probe into 57 cases involving money politics and breach of conduct reported since last year.

Among them were the allegations raised by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad on money politics being the reason he was defeated in the nominations process to represent Kubang Pasu last year.

The highest ranking party member to be punished by the board was former vice-president Mohd Isa Abdul Samad who was suspended for six years in 2005 for money politics.