InDaily revealed last week that no party members put their hands up to run in Narungga, one of the Liberal Party’s safest seats, by the close of nominations more than two weeks ago, with the state executive unsuccessfully canvassing local councillor Tania Stock about standing.

But state president Legh Davis confirmed to InDaily today that Barunga Gap farmer Tom Michael was passed by the party’s candidate review committee late last week, and will shortly be formally announced as the Liberal candidate.

“We have elected a candidate, as we always said we would,” Davis said.

Asked whether Michael, whose contact details were not provided to InDaily, had been approached to run, Davis said: “He made his own decision… he saw the announcement that we were looking for a candidate and he applied.”

However he did not clarify when Michael put his name forward, including whether it was after the original deadline for nominations.

“He applied around that time,” he said.

“I’ve never said anything about the timing of this… we have the right to extend nominations if we so choose, as we often do – the timeframe is very unimportant.”

Davis insisted “we put a very short time frame on” nominations, arguing “we’d normally give people much longer to apply”.

“There is nothing irregular whatever about the timeframe – it simply doesn’t enter into the discussion,” he said.

Michael has links to the moderate wing of the party in a seat whose membership is overwhelmingly conservative – and which has overwhelmingly backed Ellis, who was cut adrift by the party as he faces legal action over alleged misuse of the parliamentary Country Members Accommodation Allowance.

Michael’s cousin is Penny Pratt, a longtime adviser – most recently of Adelaide frontbencher Rachel Sanderson – who is running for the Liberals in another regional seat, Frome.

His uncle is former federal Adelaide MP Michael Pratt, while his father Neville is understood to have previously sought preselection against former state parliament veteran Ivan Venning in Schubert.

But it’s understood Michael himself is not a long-time party member, with Narungga state electorate conference committee member and prominent local businessman Malcolm Eglinton telling InDaily he was not known in the local SEC.

“He’s an unknown to us anyway – I’ve heard the name but I personally do not know him,” he said.

“A lot of us down this end of the electorate don’t know who he is, or much about him… my impression is he’s been approached by somebody from Adelaide.”

He said members would be particularly keen to know their candidate’s position on the state’s mining act, over which Ellis has previously defied the Government.

“One would hope if he stands for this area he stands up for this area, as did Fraser Ellis,” Eglinton said.

Ellis described his new opponent as “a good bloke” who he had “had a bit to do with in the last few years, going into bat for a few different things in Snowtown”.

However, he argued, “the Liberal Party has treated our side terribly throughout this preselection process, dragging out what they were doing with me and dragging the preselection process out until five weeks before the election”.

“They’ve denied the electorate the chance to meet the candidate and interrogate him about his views,” he said.

“It’s hard to see how they can expect people to vote for them after the process they’ve gone through to pick their candidate.”

Ellis said “I know I maintain the confidence of quite a number of local Liberal members”.

“They share my disappointment with the way Adelaide has been trying to dictate to country South Australians how to live their lives, and what’s best for them [which was] one of the reasons I nominated for preselection in the first place,” he said.

A party source told InDaily Michael came from “a well-known family in the area”, many of whom had been “office holders in the Liberal party for a long time”.

“There are pockets [of the seat] really supportive of Fraser, but I don’t know how widespread they’d be,” they said, arguing Ellis’s support was “all centred around Maitland”.

“But it’s a pretty diverse electorate,” they said.