Moderate Liberal Party supporters in the electorate are deeply unhappy with Mr Abbott's failure to honour his "no wrecking, no sniping, no undermining" pledge after being ousted by Mr Turnbull in 2015. At a more local level, they believe Mr Abbott is out of step with the views of the party membership and wider electorate on issues like climate change, renewable energy and same-sex marriage. Warringah recorded a 75 per cent vote in favour of same-sex marriage in last year's postal survey - the 10th-highest vote in the country and the fifth highest of the Liberal Party's 76 seats in Parliament. Former prime minister Tony Abbott vowed to represent the members who voted against him. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "Everybody with any degree of commitment to the party and its long-term future wants to see this guy go; he's just useless," said one local member on Saturday. Sources at the meeting said Mr Abbott appeared surprised by the depth of feeling against him.

"You may have voted against me, but I will continue to be your member," Mr Abbott told Friday night's gathering. The meeting erupted when officials refused to read out the numbers from the secret ballot. Members were heard shouting "disgrace", "transparency is dead", and "release the results". "Unsurprisingly, when Tony was faced with the truth, Tony was too afraid to front up and reveal just how strong his opposition is," another member said. NSW Liberal Party figures spent much of Saturday speculating about the result and what might happen next. Fairfax Media has been told by three sources that 46 votes were cast for Mr Abbott, 38 were cast against, and a further nine votes were informal - bringing the total number of members present to 93. Under party rules, a majority of 50 per cent plus one is required to successfully endorse a candidate. If Mr Abbott did receive just 46 votes, he may have fallen narrowly short of the majority technically required.

But in a sign of the confusion over the vote, another source said there were only two informal votes in the ballot, which if true would mean he exceeded the party rules. Local members will spend Sunday deciding whether to challenge the result and ask the NSW Liberal Party to reopen the preselection process. At a minimum they are expected to demand the party publicly release the results of the vote. The director of the Liberal Party division in NSW, Chris Stone, would not comment on the outcome or reveal the numbers in the ballot, but a spokesman for the party countered the claim that Mr Abbott had come close to losing. "Tony Abbott was successfully endorsed by a comfortable majority," the spokesman said. The Liberal Party is also facing a shock in the key marginal seat of Gilmore on the NSW South Coast, where sitting MP Ann Sudmalis is set to announce she will not recontest the seat at the election.

Ms Sudmalis is understood to have told colleagues she will leave parliament at the election, a move that will make it more difficult for the government to defend the seat, which it holds by a margin of 0.7 per cent. Last month’s leadership spill is understood to have put intense pressure on Ms Sudmalis, who had the backing of Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison to stay in the seat. The likely Liberal candidate for the seat is Grant Schultz, who has challenged Ms Sudmalis for the preselection, but Labor candidate Fiona Phillips made strong gains in the seat at the last election. In the Sydney seat of Wentworth, former Australian Medical Association President Kerryn Phelps will on Sunday announce she will stand as an independent at the October 20 byelection triggered by Mr Turnbull’s resignation from Parliament. Liberals believe the safe seat could fall to Professor Phelps, despite preselecting Australia’s former ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma, as its candidate. As reported by Fairfax Media on Wednesday, former Woolworths chief Roger Corbett was selected to replace Mr Abbott’s close ally, Walter Villatora, as the president of the Federal Electorate Conference.

With Mr Abbott's support, Mr Villatora nominated for the vice-presidency but lost to the moderates' Lee Furlong 44-60. Mr Villatora - who had been considered a possible future member for Warringah - was also defeated for another position by former Young Liberals president Alex Dore. The next election will be the 10th Mr Abbott has contested for Warringah. During last month's Liberal leadership crisis government backbencher Damien Drum urged the former prime minister to quit Parliament. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "He vowed he wouldn't be a wrecker and that's exactly what he's been, a wrecker," the Nationals MP said.