The NSW division of the Liberal Party will need to call on federal officials to extend the term of the state’s peak executive body under legal advice that could spark a new clash over an urgent search for candidates to fight the coming federal election.

With factions at odds over who should contest key seats, NSW Liberal Party president Philip Ruddock called an urgent meeting of the state executive on Wednesday to address legal advice regarding the risk of breaching the party’s constitution.

NSW Liberal Party president Philip Ruddock.Credit:Mick Tsikas

The state executive will have to decide whether to ask the Liberal Party’s federal executive, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, to authorise the state body to continue until an urgent annual general meeting next month.

The surprise meeting has deepened the anxieties within the state division over the inability to select candidates for key federal seats including Warringah, Bennelong, Hughes, Dobell, Parramatta and Eden-Monaro.

The party is also in the middle of a contest for the NSW Senate ticket at the election due by May, with two winnable positions being contested by Foreign Minister Marise Payne, former minister and sitting senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, sitting senator Jim Molan and new candidate Mary Lou Jarvis, a vice president of the state division.

Mr Ruddock moved on Wednesday to dismiss the idea that the legal move to extend the state executive amounted to a federal intervention, an idea that could lead Mr Morrison to hold sway over the division and choose the candidates to fight the election.

The legal advice provided to Mr Ruddock and state director Chris Stone says the state executive is at risk of breaching the party constitution because it did not hold an annual general meeting when required.

The failure to assemble the AGM has been blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic because of the challenge of holding a public meeting during the Delta and Omicron outbreaks.

Mr Ruddock is assuring fellow Liberals the decision on the AGM does not affect the daily functions of the NSW division.

“Due to the significant challenges associated with holding an AGM in late 2021 [or] early 2022 related to COVID restrictions, the NSW division is taking proactive steps to ensure elected officials on its state executive to serve until the AGM can be held in March,” he said.

“This does not affect the functioning of the NSW Liberal Party itself.”

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