John Marek will appeal to party executives

Dr John Marek, the sitting AM for Wrexham, has alleged he was the victim of an unfair smear campaign, which resulted in him losing a reselection battle by four votes.

He has now appealed to the Welsh Labour Executive to consider whether the vote was a fair one.

Critics had previously accused him of bringing the party into disrepute.

He denied the allegation, although he has confirmed he has no regrets about criticising both the Labour leadership and certain decisions made by the Labour-controlled Wrexham Council.

On Saturday, party members narrowly rejected him in favour of his former secretary Lesley Griffiths.

It was an open, democratic selection Successful candidate Lesley Griffiths

But Dr Marek said the contest was unfair. He was particularly upset at an anonymous letter in which his record as a politician was attacked.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales on Sunday, he said he was confident the Welsh Labour Executive would give its support to an appeal.

The executive is due to discuss the appeal in five days' time.

Dr Marek told Sunday Edition that he would have won the vote if it had not been for the campaign against him.

"Unfortunately, the group that upset me have distributed a letter which is libellous and is full of lies and smears, and which, I am sure, stopped a lot of members coming in to vote for me," he said.

But many of Dr Marek's critics have said he lost the confidence of local party members after being accused of bringing the party into disrepute.

The winner of the reselection process announced on Saturday is Dr Marek's former secretary, Lesley Griffiths, who said she was "extremely happy" about winning the vote 84-80.

Lesley Griffiths: ' Extremely happy'

He has called on Mrs Griffiths to withdraw her candidature until the decision of the party executive was clear. She has said she was looking forward to ratification of her selection.

The executive will discuss Dr Marek's appeal on Friday evening, following this week's pre-election Welsh Labour conference.

Mrs Griffiths said: "I am delighted to have been selected. It was a wonderful result."

She added: "It was an open, democratic selection that Wrexham Labour Party members wanted. I felt that although I had worked for John for two years that shouldn't exclude me from putting my name forward for selection."

Dr Marek has denied that he intends to stand as an independent candidate if he fails to be reselected by Labour.

"I don't wish to be an independent candidate," he said.

"I want to be a Labour candidate and will see what the appeal has to say."

The 250 members of the Labour party in Wrexham heard a five-minute campaign speech from each prospective AM in hustings during Friday and Saturday.

This was followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer session.

John Marek biography: MP for Wrexham 1983 - 2001 He taught in the Applied Maths Department of Aberystwyth Labour spokesman on health 1985-87 and Civil Service/Treasury 1987-1992 He is a member of the International Astronomical Union.

The full reselection battle was called after Dr Marek failed to win a vital renomination ballot in December 2002.

He had originally decided to try renomination rather than face a disciplinary hearing, but lost the ballot of local and union branches by 13 votes to 10.

As the sitting AM for Wrexham, Dr Marek was automatically included on the shortlist, which also featured Ted George, the leader of the employers' side in the firefighters pay dispute.