North Shore MP Felicity Wilson's preselection challenged by rival
North Shore MP Felicity Wilson's political future has hit another hurdle with her rival lodging an 11th hour appeal against her preselection with the NSW Liberal Party executive.
Ms Wilson narrowly survived a challenge to her career last week when she won a razor tight preselection battle for the North Shore seat against former Liberal staffer Tim James by one vote.
Her victory cleared the path for her to recontest the seat at the state election in March.
But Mr James has now followed through on his threat to challenge her victory, with Liberal party sources confirming he had formally appealed the verdict through the party's disputes resolution process on Monday.
One Liberal MP labelled the appeal an "extraordinary move" and "a gross distraction" for the party.
"We've got a new opposition leader, we need to get on with the job of attacking Labor, not each other," the MP said.
Mr James declined to comment.
The appeal keeps alive the bitter dispute over the seat between the Liberal party's warring factions - with Ms Wilson a member of the moderate faction, and Mr James a representative of the party's hard right wing.
It is a last ditch hope by Mr James to stake his claim to the seat, after losing by just six votes to Ms Wilson in an earlier preselection battle for the seat in 2017.
The NSW Liberal Party, via a spokesman, declined to comment on the grounds it was an internal party matter.
The appeal will now be heard by the party's disputes panel, comprised of Liberal party members, within the next two weeks.
The appeal is understood to consist of several grounds, including a claim that Ms Wilson failed to win by an absolute majority, as required by the party's constitution.
Following the vote last Monday, Mr James' supporters maintained Ms Wilson needed to secure at least 103 of the 205 votes to satisfy the absolute majority requirement, which is calculated as fifty per cent plus one vote.
She won by 101 votes to Mr James' 100, with four informal votes recorded.
It is understood the appeal also challenges the decision to exclude former Museum of Contemporary Art director Lisa Paulsen, who was struck off from the preselector roll hours before the vote took place after Ms Wilson's camp successfully challenged her eligibility.
Ms Wilson's narrow victory was eagerly welcomed by her moderate faction, which includes NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian who personally appealed to preselectors to endorse Ms Wilson.
However, the one-vote margin testifies to the strong conservative support Mr James has marshalled in the branches.
Among his allies in the party's right wing is former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose seat of Warringah overlaps with the North Shore electorate.
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