OPINION pollsters are asking Hastings residents whether the National Party should choose Andrew Stoner or Rob Drew as its candidate in the Lyne by-election.

Mr Stoner, the NSW Nationals leader and Oxley MP, and Mr Drew, the former Hastings mayor, are thought to be front-runners for Nationals’ pre-selection for the federal seat being left vacant by the resignation of Mark Vaile.

A local resident told the Port News he had been asked a number of questions on Wednesday about which of the two he preferred and whether he would vote for them or for Port Macquarie MP Rob Oakeshott should the independent make the move to the federal sphere.

He also was asked how familiar he was with and whether or not he felt favourably towards a long list of people that included some dismissed Port Macquarie-Hastings councillors and less familiar names he believed were Greater Taree and Great Lakes councillors.

The opinion poll also covered federal political figures and local issues including the Glasshouse cultural centre and the doctor shortage in Laurieton, our reader said.

The Nationals had been conducting opinion polling since Monday, Noel Atkins, chairman of the party’s Lyne electorate council, told the Port News.

He said the party hoped to have some preliminary results by today.

The Nationals were still calling for nominations for pre-selection and would accept bids from political hopefuls until Wednesday, he said, with Saturday, August 2, the likely date for a meeting to decide on a candidate.

The Liberal Party, meanwhile, would definitely stand a candidate for the vacant federal parliamentary seat “if we get the right person”, someone who wanted to be identified only as “a senior Liberal source” told the Port News.

The “right person” would be “a community person rather than a political hack”, the “source” said.

He added that the Liberals were “not afraid of a three-cornered contest”, where the National and Liberal parties compete for votes.

The Labor Party is holding a teleconference today between local delegates and NSW party officials as part of its “consultation process” on whether to stand a candidate in what is considered a safe Nationals seat.

Following these consultations, Labor hoped to reach a decision next week on whether it would contest the by-election, the party’s NSW general secretary, Karl Bitar, told the Port News.