An ACT Labor candidate who won a preselection vote before being dropped from the ballot over quota requirements will now contest the election for the party after the Chief Minister and federal MPs intervened.
Taimus Werner-Gibbings, who is not factionally aligned, won a preselection vote for Brindabella, taking 44 votes when a ballot was held in November.
Mr Werner-Gibbings received more votes than Mick Gentleman, the party's incumbent member for Brindabella, who received 32 votes.
But he was dropped from the ticket to make way for left-aligned candidate Louise Crossman, a former party president and ministerial staffer, who came last in the original preselection ballot.
The decision by ACT Labor's branch council to overturn the preselection vote prompted the territory's three lower house Labor members to write to the party's national executive to urge them to overrule the branch council decision.
Andrew Leigh, Alicia Payne and Dave Smith - who represent the territory's federal electorates in the House of Representatives - wrote to the national executive last year, expressing concern over the decision.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr then intervened, pushing for a solution that involved Noor El-Asadi, who was preselected for Brindabella, moving to Murrumbidgee and making way for Mr Werner-Gibbings to return to the party's Brindabella ticket.
The candidate shuffle will mean the Labor party meets its internal candidate quota requirements, with Mr Werner-Gibbings and Ms Crossman still to run in Brindabella. Another male candidate was removed from the party's Murrumbidgee ticket.
The party's affirmative action requirements mean the party must run at least two female candidates in each of the five five-member ACT electorates, and 13 female candidates out of the total 25-member candidate list.
Mr Werner-Gibbings, a former staffer to the factionally unaligned Mr Leigh, narrowly lost to the Greens' Johnathan Davis at the 2020 election.
When preselectors fail to meet the quotas, the party's branch council can intervene to ensure the requirements are met.
The party's rules give the branch council the power to reopen nominations, move candidates between electorates, or take "any other action to ensure that affirmative action is met".
Mr Werner-Gibbings had told supporters after the branch council decision that things were bleak but not yet finished for him.
"Many more of you than I am comfortable with are seriously considering or determined to throw your ACT Labor memberships in the bin because the Party is 'not worthy of your membership'. I ask you to at least defer that decision, and at best, change your mind and stay with us," Mr Werner-Gibbings wrote at the time.
Mr Werner-Gibbings said ACT Labor remained the territory's best choice for an effective and progressive government, and warned against a reduction of non-aligned members of the party in Brindabella.
Another female candidate had also polled higher than Ms Crossman in the original preselection vote, but did not receive factional backing at a bitter branch council meeting, excluding her from the revised ticket.
Brendan Forde, a right-aligned senior adviser to Mr Smith and former candidate, was backed at the branch council meeting to stay on the ticket, despite polling behind Mr Werner-Gibbings in the original ballot.
