Belco Party leader Bill Stefaniak has ruled out endorsing dumped Liberal MLA Elizabeth Kikkert to run for the party in the upcoming ACT election.
Mrs Kikkert has still not made any public statement since she was dumped by the Canberra Liberals.
The Liberals issued a statement in the early hours of Tuesday morning to say its management committee had decided Mrs Kikkert would no longer be a party candidate. The decision was unanimous.
The party declared it had no tolerance for poor workplace behaviour and non compliance with donation disclosure and electoral expenditure laws.
Mrs Kikkert has not responded to questions from The Canberra Times since her party dumped her.
However, The Canberra Times on Thursday revealed Mrs Kikkert had met the Belco Party to discuss her political future.
Mr Stefaniak, a former ACT Liberal opposition leader, on Friday said he and Angela Lount had met Mrs Kikkert but the party would continue with its current ticket.
Mrs Kikkert had been keen to explore the possibility of becoming an endorsed Belco Party candidate but the conversation did not discuss the allegations that led to her dumping by the Liberal party, he said.
"I think she made a few comments about it, but look, I've heard so many different stories about all that, so I'll let that pan itself out," Mr Stefaniak said.
The Belco Party leader said it would be very late to parachute a candidate onto the party's ticket.
"Especially when there's a few question marks we simply don't know answers to. So we wish Elizabeth Kikkert well," Mr Stefaniak said.
Mr Stefaniak said the Belco Party had been impressed with the work Mrs Kikkert had done in the community.
"We've always found her a very decent person, but we're very comfortable with the team of three," he said.
Mr Stefaniak said Mrs Kikkert thoroughly understood the position the Belco Party had taken.
Liberal figures are understood to have warned the Belco Party against endorsing Mrs Kikkert to run as a candidate on their ticket.
Mrs Kikkert won 9.3 per cent of the vote at the 2020 election as an incumbent, ahead of Peter Cain, who was elected as a Liberal member of the Assembly for the first time.
But defending the seat would be a tough political challenge. Helen Cross, who was elected as a Liberal to the Assembly in 2001, left the party in 2002 and failed to win a seat at the 2004 election.
Richard Mulcahy was dumped by the Liberals in late 2007 and failed to win a seat when he ran an independent ticket at the 2008 territory election.
