By Jeremy Sollars
State MP for Southern Downs James Lister is understood to have overwhelmingly won a local LNP internal party vote held at the weekend to endorse him as the party’s candidate for the 2020 Queensland election.
As reported online by the Free Times last Friday the pre-selection vote was held in Warwick last Saturday 30 November, at the QCWA rooms on Grafton Street.
The Free Times has been told close to 100 local LNP members attended the vote and that Mr Lister received around 93% in favour of his candidacy endorsement.
Pre-selection is an internal process conducted by all political parties to choose their State and Federal candidates and in the case of a sitting member is normally a formality.
But Mr Lister’s endorsement by local LNP branch members must still be formally ratified by the party’s State Council, its governing body in Queensland, as is the case with all of its State candidates.
Comment is being sought from LNP head office in relation to the likely timeframe for a final State Council decision on Mr Lister’s candidacy.
Mr Lister was the only nomination for the LNP Southern Downs candidacy at Saturday’s ballot.
The next Queensland election is due on Saturday 31 October 2020.
Under LNP rules the state council can take the rare step of overturning a local vote of party members and endorsing a different candidate but generally only in exceptional circumstances.
Mr Lister was first elected as the LNP Member for Southern Downs at the last state election in November 2017.
