After an arduous 6-and-a-half-hour pre-selection battle, Dave Sharma has won Liberal pre-selection for the blue ribbon seat of Wentworth.

Though factional heavyweights pressured Sharma to withdraw from the race to clear the path for Scott Morrison’s pick Katharine O’Regan, Sharma emerged victorious from the contest with 119 votes, beating seven other competitors.  His win materialised after eleventh hour intervention by two former prime ministers, Malcolm Turnbull and John Howard, who urged Sharma to stay in the contest despite Morrison’s push for a female candidate.

"Scott Morrison has broken with a long-standing Liberal Party convention which is that parliament leaders do not get involved in pre-selection," says author John Ruddick in the immediate aftermath of the preselection result. 

"I've spoken with 15 people involved tonight and they all tell me there was a hell of a lot of disquiet about Morrison saying you've got to support a women." 

"The Liberal Party pre-selectors today have shown their not going to take instructions, they're going to make their own decisions based on merit." 

After an arduous 6-and-a-half-hour pre-selection&nbsp;battle, Dave Sharma has won Liberal pre-selection for the blue ribbon seat of Wentworth.
Though factional heavyweights pressured Sharma to withdraw from the race to clear the path for Scott Morrison&rsquo;s pick Katharine O&rsquo;Regan, Sharma emerged victorious from the contest with 119 votes, beating seven other competitors.&nbsp;&nbsp;His win materialised after eleventh hour intervention by two former prime ministers, Malcolm Turnbull and John Howard, who urged Sharma to stay in the contest despite Morrison&rsquo;s push for a female&nbsp;candidate.
"Scott Morrison has broken with a long-standing Liberal Party convention which is that parliament leaders do not get involved in pre-selection," says author John Ruddick in the immediate aftermath of the preselection result.&nbsp;
"I've spoken with 15 people involved tonight and they all tell me there was a hell of a lot of disquiet about Morrison saying you've got to support a women."&nbsp;
"The Liberal Party pre-selectors&nbsp;today have shown their not going to take instructions, they're going to make their own decisions based on merit."&nbsp;

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