The Liberal Party’s candidate for the federal by-election in the seat of Fadden on the Gold Coast is set to be decided this afternoon.

The chosen candidate will be the frontrunner when the northern Gold Coast electorate heads to the polls in July, in a vote triggered by the sudden retirement of controversial former Coalition Minister Stuart Robert.

Today’s preselection battle at Runaway Bay will be a five-horse race between branch chair and business woman Fran Ward, emergency doctor and 2021 Queenslander of the year Dinesh Palipana, Gold Coast City councillor and planning boss Cameron Caldwell and a pair of lesser-known financial advisors, Owen Caterer and Craig Hobart.

Mr Palipana, a quadriplegic and well-known disability advocate was endorsed by local state MP, Sam Bonney, while Mr Caldwell has been a councillor on the Gold Coast for more than a decade.

Safe seat ‘doesn’t exist any more’

The Liberal Party is desperate to avoid a repeat of the disaster in Aston earlier this year, which marked the first time in more than a century that a sitting government won a seat from opposition in a federal by-election.

But the marginal electorate of Aston in the outer suburbs of Melbourne is a far cry from the LNP stronghold of the Gold Coast.

The Coalition has a firm grip on Fadden, holding the northern Gold Coast seat with a 10.6 per cent margin.

Queensland Opposition leader David Crisafulli, whose state electorate of Broadwater sits within Fadden, refused to publicly endorse a candidate but said the notion of a safe seat no longer existed in modern politics.

“I think both political parties would acknowledge that the concept doesn’t exist any more,” he said.

“The days of people being rusted on one way or another is over.”

Voters in Fadden will goes to the polls on July 15.