Sinn Féin will today decide on a Northern Ireland candidate for next year's European Parliament elections.
Party members at a selection convention in Belfast will choose between former Stormont health minister Bairbre de Brun and Dungannon councillor Francie Molloy.
Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin had been expected to put his name forward after coming close in 1999 to winning a seat.
However, the former Foyle Assembly member did not do so because he said he wanted to concentrate on the development of the party both in Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Ms de Brun was elected to the Stormont Assembly for west Belfast in 1998 and has been a senior leadership figure. Her opponent, Mr Molloy, is a veteran of the republican movement and a former civil rights activist.
He was the director of operations for IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and senior Sinn Féin figure Owen Carron when they won by-elections in Fermanagh and South Tyrone in 1981.
The party has already announced one of its rising stars, Marylou McDonald, will be the party's candidate in Dublin for next year's European election.
A selection convention is also due to take place in Limerick on Saturday for the party's candidate in Munster.