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An adviser to one of the defeated Liberal nomination contestants in Orléans is alleging that the party manipulated the nomination process to favour their preferred candidate, former Orléans MPP Marie-France Lalonde.

The Liberals won the east Ottawa riding from the Conservatives in 2015 with the election of star candidate and former army commander Andrew Leslie. He announced May 1 that he wasn’t running again, and at least two hopeful nomination contestants made it known shortly after that they would campaign to become his successor: Orléans MPP Lalonde and Orléans Liberal riding association president Khatera Akbari.

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But it wasn’t until Sept. 13 — days after the writ was issued and weeks after nominating candidates in other Ottawa-area ridings — that the Liberals announced a nomination meeting in Orléans for Sept. 19.

The party has not explained why it waited so long to call the nomination meeting, despite repeated questions from this newspaper.