LABOUR'S new Scottish leader will be unveiled at a special gathering in Glasgow this weekend. Whoever gets the job faces a tough task – and it's not just taking on Alex Salmond every week at First Minister's Questions.
If Labour is to have any chance of returning to power at the next Scottish Parliament elections, it has to find an effective way of opposing the SNP Government, reinvigorating its own activists and re-establishing its credibility with the electorate.
Voting in the three-way contest closed at teatime on Tuesday and the ballot papers are now being counted by independent polling companies.
Labour officials say no-one in the party will be told the result until Saturday morning and the three candidates – Iain Gray, Cathy Jamieson and Andy Kerr – will only find out moments before the official announcement.
The winner will become Labour's fifth leader in the nine years of devolution.
Pundits have made Mr Gray, the East Lothian MSP and former Enterprise Minister, the favourite. But even some of his supporters say the contest is "too close to call" and predict it will come down to Mr Gray against Ms Jamieson, with the outcome being decided by the second preferences of Mr Kerr's backers.
Once the result is announced, as if to underline the problems facing the party, the new leader's first engagement will be to go to campaign in the Glenrothes by-election, where Labour faces an uphill battle to hold on to what should be a safe Westminster seat.
The party is still struggling to come to terms with its loss of power in last year's Holyrood elections and now needs to start again after a virtually wasted year with Wendy Alexander as leader.
Its task is made harder by the unpopularity of the UK Labour Government and the difficulties faced by Gordon Brown.
Critics have claimed when Labour ministers were in power at Holyrood, they spent too much time looking over their shoulder to make sure they were not deviating too far from the Westminster line. Many believe the new leader will have to prove Scottish Labour is not simply following the UK party's line all the time.
The Prime Minister's speech to CBI Scotland last week, in which he signalled support for further financial devolution, was a significant shift which could help put the party in Scotland in a better position to combat the SNP's drive for independence.
But it is still unclear whether Mr Brown is in favour of the Scottish Parliament having more power to set taxes or whether he wants a system of "assigned revenues", where some of tax revenues collected in Scotland stay here.
The timing of the Prime Minister's speech – on the same day as the final stage of the Wendy Alexander saga, the vote in parliament against suspending her over the donations row – had a certain ironic poignancy.
Perhaps Ms Alexander's one notable success during her short reign as leader was to move Scottish Labour from its stance in last year's election against further devolution to acceptance of the "more powers" case.
Her St Andrew's Day lecture at Edinburgh University gave birth to the cross-party Calman Commission – though not without some resistance from Gordon Brown.
One Labour MSP says the Prime Minister's comments to the CBI are effectively a green light for whatever the commission comes up with, probably a combination of assigned taxes and new tax powers.
"We will have to wait and see what they come up with, but that's the general direction of travel and there is a growing consensus across the parties, and the Prime Minister has come to a decision to back it."
More immediately, the first test for Labour's new leader is likely to be next week's First Minister's Questions.
Mr Kerr claimed in an interview last month he was the best placed of the candidates to tackle Mr Salmond at FMQs. "We need to take him head on, take him on at his own game and stand up to him," he said.
But one MSP argues Mr Kerr's "bruiser" style is exactly the wrong tactic. "Salmond would relish having Andy as Labour leader because he aspires to be like Salmond but never will be."
Mr Gray has almost played down the importance of FMQs, saying he does not claim he could outdo Alex Salmond in the "playground abuse" approach to politics. "I don't think that's how our politics should be," he said.
Ms Jamieson has acquitted herself well when, as deputy leader, she has had to stand in at FMQs – she did it again last week against Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Her supporters argue her quiet but pointed style makes her the one Mr Salmond would find most difficult to handle. "Cathy is the leader they would fear the most," says one backer.
Whoever is named the new leader on Saturday will be taking on a host of challenges.
But after the troubles of the last 18 months, Labour will be hoping this weekend marks a new start.
