City Scope has learned former St. Thomas mayor Peter Ostojic’s bid to gain the provincial Conservative nomination in Elgin-Middlesex-London was quashed at party headquarters.

Ostojic declared his intention to run in early February, however his bid was not approved in Toronto and he was informed Monday, less than a week prior to Saturday’s nomination meeting at Parkside Collegiate Institute.

Alan Sakach, director of communications for the Ontario PC Party, told City Scope on Tuesday five individuals are in the running: Lynn Acre, Tom Marks, Peter North, Delia Reiche and Jeff Yurek.

When asked to confirm Ostojic is not on the final nomination list, Sakach responded, “That is correct, he is not.”

Asked to explain the discrepancy in reports published in the Times-Journal about Ostojic’s nomination bid, Sakach stressed, “It’s an internal organizational matter by the party. We’ve got rules and a process and if there’s a dispute there is a process that is available to resolve that. In general, I won’t comment on people that may not be running, only when they are confirmed as running.”

When asked to confirm Ostojic had indeed filed his nomination bid, Sakach would only say, “There are lots of people interested in running for the party, but like I said I’m not going to comment on people until they are confirmed.”

PC Riding Association president Stan Stanek confirmed the decision was relayed to Ostojic on Monday.

“I haven’t been officially notified by the party, but apparently they’ve notified Mr. Ostojic and it was left up to him to let us know. And, in fact, he has let me know. It is a fact. It was disclosed Monday afternoon.”

Asked if this will alter the process for Saturday’s nomination meeting, Stanek said, “It doesn’t change the process, we’ll just be missing one candidate, which everyone was counting on. I was surprised myself, but that’s their decision.”

City Scope hopes to have comments from Ostojic on Wednesday and the full story will appear in the Times-Journal.