South Australia's Liberal Party hopes to end internal tension by deciding the future of embattled leader Martin Hamilton-Smith in a vote on Saturday.
The Liberal leadership and Mr Hamilton-Smith's future are the subjects of an extraordinary party meeting.
The Liberals hope the leadership will be decided once and for all and give the reeling party a hope of winning the 2010 state election.
Senior Liberals are optimistic Saturday's vote, which was called for by Mr Hamilton-Smith, will end months of inner party tension.
The growing dissent over Mr Hamilton-Smith's performance as leader began several weeks ago when he presented to parliament documents accusing Mike Rann's Labor government of accepting illegal donations from a group with ties to the Church of Scientology.
The documents turned out to be forgeries and Mr Hamilton-Smith was forced to make a public apology.
On Tuesday, after hours of closed-door meetings with party members, Mr Hamilton called an extraordinary joint parliamentary party meeting to vote on the leadership.
His only declared challenger to date remains deputy leader Vickie Chapman.
It is not yet known whether there will be other challengers but it is believed Mr Hamilton-Smith has the numbers to retain the top job.
The deputy leadership position has also been thrown wide open in the process.
Frontbencher Isobelle Redmond put an end to speculation surrounding her support for Ms Chapman on Wednesday, saying she would only stand for the deputy position if Mr Hamilton-Smith was re-elected leader.
Liberal MP Mitch Williams, who resigned from the front bench last week after calling for the leader to stand down amid plummeting popularity polls, said he would not run against Mr Hamilton-Smith to contest the leadership ballot and would "probably not" stand for the deputy's position.
Front page
RSS Feed