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July 13th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
The Labor Party’s national executive has decided not to intervene in the selection of candidates in five key seats vacated by former Gillard government ministers.
At a meeting today it decided to leave the selection of candidates to fight the election to its local branches.
The timetable for preselection for the seats of Rankin, Kingsford Smith, Charlton, Lalor and Hotham will be decided by the state branches and will all be finalised by July 27.
ALP national president Jennifer McAllister says it is a realistic time frame.
“We were balancing our usual desire to have rank-and-file members involved with the need to move quite quickly given the proximity of the election,” she said.
“We went and consulted state secretaries and that’s the way we’re going to go.”
The ALP also removed any obstacles to the eligibility of Joanne Ryan, Lisa Clutterham and Julie Ann Evans for preselection for the Victorian seat of Lalor, which is currently held by Julia Gillard.
Ms Clutterham has since announced she will not contest for preselection.
Ms Gillard is standing down at this year’s federal election after losing a leadership ballot to Kevin Rudd last month.
Elsewhere in Victoria, Simon Crean will be vacating his Hotham electorate.
In the Queensland seat of Rankin, Labor are looking for a replacement for Craig Emerson, while in New South Wales, Peter Garrett is retiring from Kingsford Smith and Greg Combet from Charlton.
Topics:
alp,
political-parties,
government-and-politics,
elections,
federal-elections,
melbourne-3000,
vic,
sydney-2000,
nsw,
brisbane-4000,
qld
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Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-13/local-branches-to-decide-labor-candidates-for-key-seats/4818552
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