By David Rood
LABOR'S selection of a candidate for the Broadmeadows byelection has been thrown into turmoil with the Supreme Court to in effect rule on how the party should choose who should run.
The court this morning will rule on whether local members should be given a say in choosing who will contest the February byelection for former premier John Brumby's safe Labor seat.
With the court ruling pending, last night the ALP's national executive decided it would select a candidate at a meeting on Monday morning, in a move that would all but guarantee Frank McGuire - older brother of Collingwood Football Club president Eddie McGuire - preselection.
A bloc of four Labor unions is seeking a Supreme Court injunction to force a vote of local members on Sunday to select a candidate.
That vote would preclude the nomination of Mr McGuire, who is not currently an ALP member.
The unions taking the action - the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, the National Union of Workers, the Health Services Union and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union - are backing Hume councillor Burhan Yigit as Labor's candidate for the February 19 byelection.
But with Mr McGuire being supported by the Socialist Left faction and a rival bloc of Labor's Right faction supported by federal Labor ministers Bill Shorten and Stephen Conroy, the preselection process has become a poisonous internal party brawl.
Lawyers for the unions seeking the court intervention told the Supreme Court yesterday that a decision by the Victorian ALP's administrative committee earlier this week to call in the federal party to choose a candidate effectively bypassed the party's rules.
But lawyers for ALP national secretary Karl Bitar and Victorian Labor secretary Nick Reece, told the court there was not enough time for a ballot of local members before the close of political party nominations on Monday and questioned the veracity of memberships rolls.
Justice Tony Pagone will hand down his ruling at 9.15 this morning.