'Invisible' Liberal Senate candidate faces disendorsement

The Canberra Liberals’ bid to win back its lost Senate seat is in disarray with its lead Senate candidate, Jacob Vadakkedathu, facing disendorsement next month amid widespread dissatisfaction with his performance.

Discontent about Mr Vadakkedathu’s low visibility surfaced last year, with Region reporting that party members were unhappy with his low profile and were prepared to move against him.

A petition was launched and gathered the required 30 signatures to force an all-party meeting to consider the matter but this did not happen due to some signatories not meeting membership requirements.

But the issue did not go away, and this year the petitioners did find enough eligible members to bring on a divisional council meeting to consider whether it should recommend to the management committee that Mr Vadakkedathu be disendorsed and a new candidate found.

That meeting is set down for 1 February but any decision there is non-binding and it will be up to the party leaders to pull the plug on Mr Vadakkedathu.

Yesterday morning (16 January), Mr Vadakkedathu was called in to party headquarters and asked to step down amid claims of branch stacking but more importantly that his campaign was not up to scratch.

He faced three party figures, including President Nick Tyrrell, but refused to relinquish his candidacy.

It is understood party members were feeling buyer’s remorse about the April preselection as early as before the October ACT election but wanted to give Mr Vadakkedathu the benefit of the doubt and wait till that poll was settled.

But the feeling grew that Mr Vadakkedathu was not delivering on his promises, including a pledge to raise $1 million for the campaign. So far he has only managed about $20,000.

He has been virtually invisible in public, except for a few shopping centre appearances, with hardly any media engagement.

There is a ‘wide and deep’ feeling in the party that it is not getting what it paid for.

With only a few months till a federal election is called, all the talk has been about the sitting Senators, Labor’s Katy Gallagher and independent David Pocock, with Senator Gallagher saying she is the underdog but not mentioning the Liberal Party.

The petitioners, mostly rank-and-file members, are concerned that the party will not be competitive despite garnering a third of the vote in the ACT election and the strong possibility that Peter Dutton could lead the federal Liberals back to government.

No other possible candidates appear to have been canvassed, although there is some speculation about former ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee.

However the party meeting pans out, it appears Mr Vadakkedathu’s campaign is terminal if a large section of the members fail to support him.

Mr Vadakkedathu told Region that he did not comment on internal party affairs.

Mr Vadakkedathu has been an unsuccessful Liberal candidate in three ACT elections.

He won preselection over the more fancied Kacey Lam-Evans, with Hayune Lee as the No. 2 on the ticket.

At the time the party boasted that it would be the most culturally diverse Senate ticket the Liberals had ever fielded, challenging the narrative of being an organisation out of touch with the community.

Hopes were high that the Liberals could regain the seat Zed Seselja lost to Senator Pocock, with a Prime Minister on the nose and a rebounding Liberal primary vote.

But now they face a Senate contest in which their lead candidate could be irrelevant.