A judge has overturned the acclamation of Tory MP Rob Anders and ordered a new nomination meeting in the riding of Calgary West.

Anders was acclaimed on Sept. 2 as the Tories' Calgary West candidate in the next federal election, prompting a group of 11 disgruntled party members to take the matter to court, alleging that the party didn't follow its own rules in selecting him.

MP Rob Anders was acclaimed as the Tory candidate in the riding of Calgary-West on Sept. 2, prompting a group of disgruntled party members to take the matter to court.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Jed Hawco agreed with them, ruling Friday that the Conservatives did not adhere to the rule book when it set the nomination meeting date for September, nor did it conduct a fair candidate selection process.

Hawco also said the riding's nomination committee chair, who lives with Anders's constituency assistant, is in a conflict of interest.

"The bigger winners are actually the members of the party and the people who live in Calgary-West," Robert Hawkes, lawyer for the anti-Anders group, said after the ruling.

"There is now a decision out that says the party has to follow the rules, which is good for the members. And there is going to be a new nomination process so that people can participate through buying memberships to vote for their candidate of choice in Calgary-West and I think that is good for the residents."

Anders didn't comment on the judge's ruling, but the head of his riding association, Andrew Constantinidis, said Anders is still the candidate because they did nothing wrong. He said he disagrees with the judge.

"I think he misunderstood the purpose of the nomination process and the fact that we followed the rules exactly as they were written and therefore the nomination result should stand the way it is."

Hawkes said he has been advised that the federal Tory party plans to apply to Alberta's appeal court for an emergency stay of the judge's decision.

Because of a potentially imminent federal election, it is unclear whether there would be enough time for the Calgary constituency to hold another 30-day nomination process.

Hawkes's group charged that the party did not advertise the date of a nomination meeting widely enough, did not hold it within the minimum 30-day guideline and failed to do a search for qualified potential candidates — all part of the organization's rule book.

Walter Wakula, former president of the riding association, tried to vie for the seat but was disqualified by the party.

At the end of August, at least two more would-be challengers of incumbent Conservative MPs in other ridings had their nominations rejected — Paul Lalli in the riding of Fleetwood-Port Kells, B.C., and David Xiao in the riding of Edmonton-Centre. 

Anders dogged by controversy

Anders was first elected in 1997, and has been re-elected in 2000, 2004 and 2006 with large majorities.

Anders has made controversial comments in the past, including calling former South African president Nelson Mandela a terrorist.

In August 2006, Lisa Young, who teaches political science at the University of Calgary, told CBC News that the nomination process would likely be a slam dunk for most Calgary MPs, with the exception of Anders.

"The one who might be a little bit nervous is Rob Anders because there has been a fairly negative campaign run against him personally during the last election and because he had quite a tight nomination contest before the 2004 election."

With files from the Canadian Press