THERE was more blood-letting in the seat of Redlands on the weekend when a motorcycle instructor was named LNP candidate for the embattled electorate and the party's branch president, secretary and treasurer resigned.
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The bitter LNP pre-selection battle erupted after Thornlands dad Matt McEachan beat Redland City councillor Lance Hewlett, who resigned as the branch president along with his wife, Sheena, who was both branch treasurer and secretary.
The ballot was called after the incumbent, Peter Dowling, Cr Hewlett's brother-in-law, failed to win LNP pre-selection in October following a scandal last year in which his penis was photographed in a glass of red wine.
The bickering continued on Sunday when 44-year-old Mr McEachan, who works in Campbell Newman's office, won 69 votes out of 105 to beat his main rival Cr Hewlett, who won 35 votes. There was one informal ballot counted.
After the vote, Cr Hewlett took to Facebook to announce he was leaving the LNP after the "betrayal, white anting, undermining, lies, threats and outrageous accusations" from within the party and resigned as branch president.
He threw his support behind his wife, Sheena Hewlett, Mr Dowling's sister, who announced she would run for the seat as an independent after resigning as branch treasurer and secretary.
Mr McEachan, who worked for federal MP Andrew Laming for six years before taking up a job in the premier's office, has lived in Thornlands since 1992.
He gained the branch's support after telling members about his love for crabbing at Victoria Point and his role as a local motorcycle instructor at Mount Cotton.
He told how his great, great, grandfather, Thomas Kirk, drove the first steam train to Cleveland in 1889 and lived in the cottage next to the old court house.
His main platform would be to fight for more road funding, particularly for Cleveland-Redland Bay Road, and money for health, police, fire and ambulance, schools and jobs.
The three other unsuccessful candidates for the seat, held by Mr Dowling since 2009, were Fiona Ward, who works in LNP MP Ray Stevens office at the Gold Coast and does not live in the electorate, Paul O'Keeffe, an accountant and Josh Hanbidge, a business manager and mason.
Eighteen state executive members voted, including party president Bruce McIver and Housing Minister MP Tim Mander, who represented the premier.
The move prompted claims the executive stacked the vote. Queensland Senator James McGrath, voted on behalf of Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Bowman MP Andrew Laming, who lives in the Redlands electorate, also cast a vote.
Mr Laming said it was a decisive win, regardless of how many executive members voted.
