Sydneysider turned Deniliquin area livestock property owner Christian Ellis emerged as a challenger to Sussan Ley's seat last year in a bid to force a pre-selection vote-off.

However, at a federal executive meeting on Friday, the Liberal Party appointed Prime Minister Scott Morrison, former Liberal Party president Christine McDiven and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet to a committee to temporarily take charge of the NSW division and finalise candidate selections ahead of an election expected in May.

Ms Ley, Alex Hawke (Mitchell) and North Sydney backbencher Trent Zimmerman have reportedly been endorsed.

The committee commenced immediately after the passing of the resolution and will remain in place until 5pm on Tuesday.

A Liberal Party statement said the intervention was "based on the circumstance that the decisions have not been made in relation to the endorsement of three incumbent Liberal members of Parliament as Liberal candidates to recontest their seats".

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Ms Ley told The Border Mail in February she did not believe the potential of a pre-selection challenge from Mr Ellis will hurt the government's success in the seat of Farrer come the election.

"I've nominated as the candidate for the Liberal Party, and I'm unaware of any other nominations," she said.

"I'm always disappointed when behaviour in any political party is not directed to the most important thing.

"Where other manoeuvring, factional deals, backroom conversations, and branch-stacking happen, that's disappointing, because it doesn't give people the confidence they need.

"Every single day, I get up and I go to work for the people of Farrer ... as we work hard to make sure that people have the opportunities for jobs, the training, the skills, and the employment prospects that they absolutely deserve.

"I know that Liberal Party representatives who don't sign on to that agenda don't deserve to be in our party."

NSW division president Philip Ruddock presented to the federal executive a list of nine names for endorsement across nine seats, following a ballot of state executive members which received a majority of votes but not the required 90 per cent backing.

Other candidates and their seats included Alex Dore (Hughes), David Brady (Warringah), Michael Feneley (Dobell), Maria Kovacic (Parramatta), Pradeep Pathi (Greenway) and Jerry Nockles (Eden-Monaro).

The federal executive also unanimously resolved yesterday to request the NSW division of the Liberal Party rectify the remaining candidates who have not been selected and endorsed in other seats by Friday, March 25.

Ms Ley was on personal leave and could not be contacted for comment on Friday.

- With Australian Associated Press

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