Senior local Labor sources believe 30 of the 143 preselectors in Macquarie are tainted by allegations of branch stacking, although the party’s assistant general secretary Luke Foley shot down these concerns when the Gazete spoke to him on Monday.

“The membership of the branches has been checked twice now — once on Saturday, and once two years ago . . . on both occasions it was found that everything was above board,” he said.

The mayor’s main rival for the candidacy, former journalist Susan Templeman, benefits from a 20 per cent loading designed to get more women in parliament. Combined with controversy over the status of the 30 preselectors, sources close to the Searle camp say it is very difficult for him to win the March 20 vote.

The Gazette understands he is seriously considering his position this week.

Clr Searle had no such trouble staving off an attempt to embarrass him in his Mid-Mountains branch last week when a challenge to his branch presidency by a staffer of Blue Mountains MP Phil Koperberg was unsuccessful.

Senior sources also stated there was no truth to media reports last week suggesting Clr Searle was willing to accept the Labor Party’s candidacy for the State seat of Blue Mountains in exchange for losing out in Macquarie.

In a further twist to the preselection race, the Gazette understands Ms Templeman does not meet the party’s requirements to vote in the Macquarie preselection herself despite being favoured to win the candidacy.

But Luke Foley also played down the significance of this development, saying it was “not unusual”.

He expressed some concern about unrest within the party making its way into the public domain.

“We’d prefer that people keep debate within the forums of the Labor Party rather than making off-the-record accusations to journalists, but preselections in both major parties are always colourful,” he said.