CONSERVATIVES in Rochester are continuing to be frustrated in their efforts to pick the person they want to fight the next general election, it has emerged.

Party chiefs at the Rochester and Strood Conservative Association have confirmed they are no nearer starting the selection process for the seat’s prospective parliamentary candidate.

The seat, which will replace the former Medway seat held by Labour’s Bob Marshall-Andrews, is a key target for the Tories.

The reason for the continuing delays remain unclear but the association remains under the direction of Conservative Central Office which intervened several months ago and gave it what is known as “supported status".

That usually happens when the party has concerns about how the association is being run.

Party chairman David Coomber said: “We are still in limbo. It [the selection process] has not yet started and the vacancy has not been advertised by Central Office. It is not an ideal situation, given all the speculation about a general election but we are optimistic about our prospects.”

He declined to go into details about the reasons the association was still being overseen by the national party. But he denied earlier claims it was related to confusion about who were members and who would be eligible to vote for a prospective candidate. “That was a red herring. It is something we are discussing with Central Office.”

The Medway seat is held by Labour with a majority of just 213. However, boundary changes favour the Conservatives and analysts say that had those changes been in place in 2005, the Conservatives would have won it with a notional majority of 1,500.