Mr David Trimble believes he will see off a challenge from two relative unknowns for the leadership of the Ulster Unionists today in Belfast.
However, the party leader's opponents may attract a significant vote and a Trimble victory could prompt further walkouts and defections by internal rebels.
The Irish Times understands a move to talk Mr Trimble into standing down yesterday in advance of today's vote was made by some members of the party at a meeting in the UUP headquarters in east Belfast.
But Mr Trimble remains defiant, confidently anticipating victory as he has throughout in the run-up to today's party annual general meeting.
Speaking at Stormont yesterday, where he attended a function celebrating the victory of local school choirs in a UK-wide competition, Mr Trimble warned that continued in-fighting would only damage his party further. He added that such wrangling was the worst possible way to prepare for the European elections.
The party is facing a stiff challenge to retain its European Parliament seat, having already suffered at the hands of the DUP in last October's Assembly election.
Now the leader of just the third-largest party in Northern Ireland and nine seats behind the Democratic Unionists at Stormont, some commentators predict more losses in the Westminster election expected to be called by Mr Tony Blair next year.
One such commentator told The Irish Times it was possible that of the three pro-agreement UUP MPs left in the House of Commons, only Lady Sylvia Hermon may be re-elected.
The UUP parliamentary party was reduced to six at the 2001 general election and, of these, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson defected to the DUP in January, while the Rev Martin Smyth and Mr David Burnside remain active opponents of the Trimble leadership.
The North Belfast Assembly member, Mr Fred Cobain, said no leader of a party should survive such a poor run of election results. He said he would not back the challenge to Mr Trimble, but neither would he support him.
Mr David Burnside, who has ruled himself out as a candidate for the leadership, said: "This party will not be united and unionism certainly will not be united under David Trimble's leadership. I fear that that section of solid, loyal Ulster Unionists who have not gone to the Democratic Unionist Party will simply opt out," he said.
Amid talk of further defections and resignations Trimble supporters fear that the issue of his leadership will not go away no matter how many Ulster Unionist Council votes are taken.
His opponents remain vociferous in their denunciation of the leader but continue to fail to come up with a senior figure to spearhead the challenge.
Today's challengers, neither of whom is an elected representative, are not well-known even within the ranks of the UUP. Mr David Hoey from Co Derry admits to being a stalking-horse candidate and has vowed to step aside if elected to allow a more realistic figure to step forward.
Mr Robert Oliver, from Mr Trimble's Upper Bann constituency, led a failed no-confidence challenge against the leader last July and opposes both the leader and party policy on the Belfast Agreement. Should either win anything approaching the levels gathered by the party's rebels at previous UUCs, then the leader could be further damaged.