Norza barred from contesting

Umno supreme council member Norza Zakaria has been barred from contesting in the party polls this Thursday.

The decision was made by the party's management committee today as a result of Norza facing a criminal case in the court for alleged money politics.

Norza, who is the Federal Territories Umno Youth chief, is vying for the supreme council post.

The party annual meeting starts tomorrow and will end on Saturday.

The announcement was made on behalf of the management committee by party secretary Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

He said that the decision to bar Norza followed similar decisions made previously in Negeri Sembilan and Perlis.

He however did not elaborate further on the matter.

Norza was charged in Temerloh magistrate's court in Pahang on March 13 for alleged involvement in money politics.

He claimed trial to two charges of offering bribes to party delegates to vote for him for the supreme council post in the coming party polls later this month.

Norza was released on a RM10,000 bail in one surety. The case will be mentioned on April 22.

Norza, 43, was alleged to have committed the offences on Jan 20, 2009 at 6.30pm at No 38, Pinggiran Tasik, Taman Bandar Temerloh, in Temerloh.

He was charged with corruptly giving Khadri Musa RM1,500 through Halimi Kamaruzzaman to be distributed to party delegates as inducement to vote for him

Norza was also charged with corruptly giving RM1,900 to Mohammad Anuar Yunus, also through Halimi Kamaruzzaman, for the same purpose.

The charges are under Section 16 (b)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 (Act 694) and punishable under Section 24 of the same Act.

Norza was investigated by the MACC since January.

Putting party interest above self

In an immediate reaction to the party's decision today, Norza said that he was disappointed but would accept the decision.

"This decision does not change my intentions to continue to contribute for the party," he said in a statement.

He said the decision of the party management committee was a challenge for him in continuing to support Umno and putting the party's interest above his.

He also expressed support for incoming president Najib Abdul Razak.

The decision by the party to bar him from contesting, coming right after he was charged in court for alleged corrupt practice, is a tremendous change in fortune for Norza.

He was once considered to be a member of outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's inner circle. He is also a close associate of Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin.

He was a former political secretary to Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yaacop.

The party's decision to stop Norza from contesting followed its earlier decision to similarly stop deputy president aspirant Mohd Ali Rustam from contesting, also for allegedly using agents to induce delegates to vote for him.

However Mohd Ali, presently a vice-president, was never charged by the MACC.