The internal insurgency against Victorian Labor's factional warlords is gaining momentum, with the votes counted in the the first part of the pre-selection process for next year's state election.
Candidates backed by former Andrews government minister Adem Somyurek are in strong positions to clinch pre-selection in the safe western suburbs seats of Tarneit – vacated by disgraced former speaker Telmo Languiller – and Footscray.
The Somyurek sub-faction could also gain control of Williamstown, also in Melbourne's west, by throwing its support behind the clear front-runner in the contest to replace former minister Wade Noonan, who resigned this month.
Mr Somyurek and his allies are challenging decades of dominance by former federal minister Stephen Conroy and his "Short-Cons" sub-faction of Labor right politics in the state.
If candidates loyal to the Somyurek sub-faction can capture all three of the seats, it considerably boost the former minister's power in the Labor caucus and help pave the way for his eventual return to the front bench.
A last ditch attempt by a member of the Conroy faction to get a legal injunction on the weekend's ballots, until a dispute about voting rights could be settled, was thrown out of the Supreme Court on Friday.
The eventual candidates will be chosen by a combination of votes of Labor members in each of the seats and support of the 100-member Public Office Selection Committee, which meets on November 15 to finalise the pre-selections.
In Tarneit, Mr Conroy's man, Jasvindher Sidhu , out-polled Mr Somyurek's candidate, Sarah Connolly, by 20 votes to 17 on Monday night but it is unlikely to be enough to secure him pre-selection when the committee casts its votes.
In Footscray, the seat vacated by the retirement of Labor veteran Marsha Thompson, Somyurek loyalist Katie Hall looks a certainty for pre-selection after capturing 75 per cent of the vote on Monday.
In Williamstown, another right-controlled seat, Level Crossing Removal Authority executive and former lobbyist Melissa Horne is now well ahead in the four-way pre-selection battle.
Ms Horne can lock down pre-selection if she gains the support of the Somyurek camp and its votes on the central committee.
Another member of Mr Somyurek's group, Clare Burns, is campaigning in the byelection in Northcote, the seat left vacant by the death in September of minister for women Fiona Richardson, against what is expected to be strong challenge from the Greens.
The other closely watched Labor pre-selection, for the upper house metro seat contested by Jane Garrett and Ingrid Stitt, is one of the largest contests in Labor history with more than 1700 registered voters.
A winner is expected to be announced on November 23.
Elsewhere, former Labor member for Melbourne Jennifer Kanis looks in a strong position over ex-Army officer Dan Cairnes, after winning 86 votes to Mr Cairnes' 53, to take on the Greens' Ellen Sandell next November.
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