Second leadership contest for Lib-Dems in 18 months
The British Liberal Democrats will announce a timetable for appointing a successor to Menzies Campbell today.
His brutally swift departure after just 18 months means the party is once again seeking a new leader.
In the short term, his deputy, Dr Vince Cable, will take over, assuming responsibility for the high-profile appearances at PMQs.
Party rules dictate that anyone wanting to stand for the top job must garner the support of at least 10% of its other MPs, and 200 ordinary members from at least 20 constituencies.
Nominations must be open for at least three weeks, with a minimum of a further five weeks for members to vote in a postal ballot.
The election is based on a based on the single transferable vote system, where members list all candidates by preference, and their votes are redistributed as the least popular are eliminated round by round.
In March 2006, this gave Mr Campbell victory in the second round, with environment spokesman Chris Huhne the runner-up.
