MEPs gear up for ALDE leadership vote

Diana Wallis and Guy Verhoftstadt are set to go head-to-head in the battle to lead parliament's ALDE group.

Each of the group's 84 newly-elected members will vote on Wallis, a UK MEP, and Verhofstadt, a former prime minister of Belgium.

They are the only two candidates to succeed Graham Watson, who hopes to become president of parliament and has been leader for seven years.

The keenly-awaited election takes place at 3pm on Tuesday.

Verhofstadt has been championed as a commission president by numerous leading figures, including Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-leader of the Greens party in parliament.

Verhofstadt was a leading candidate for the presidency of the commission in 2004 and was backed by several EU leaders, including former French president Jacques Chirac.

However, his hopes were sabotaged by British fears over what were seen as his federalist tendencies.

He only recently declared his candidacy for the ALDE post, for which he is a strong favourite.

One party insider said, "It is hard to see anything other than a Verhofstadt victory."

The group is the third largest in parliament after the recent European elections.

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