Jacqui Munro endorsed for NSW Liberal seat despite a Perrottet staffer trying to redirect votes

Sources say a staffer in NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s office tried to push votes away from Jacqui Munro, who has secured a spot on the Liberal party ticket. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

A staff member in the office of the New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, sought to block the state treasurer’s handpicked candidate for a vacant Liberal party upper house seat during a fiercely contested nomination process that reignited the factional war games seen in the lead up to the last federal election.

Late on Wednesday night the party’s powerful state executive voted to endorse Jacqui Munro, a Liberal moderate and president of the party’s women’s council, to fill the spot vacated by upper house MP Peter Poulos, who was disendorsed by the party.