The new left party being founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana has voted not to have a single leader.
At the party’s founding conference in Liverpool, voters opted for leadership by a panel of members to avoid a potentially explosive leadership race between Sultana and Corbyn.
The party also overwhelmingly supported a plan to allow members to remain in other leftist groups, just days after several members were expelled for their affiliation with the Socialist Workers Party.
Its name is going to be announced on Sunday evening, which will end the speculations that have been going on for months.
Corbyn will conclude the conference by announcing the result of a ballot in which members chose between Your Party, Our Party, the Popular Coalition and For the Many.
A spokesperson for the party said that the new leadership model “shows that we really are doing politics differently: from the bottom up, not from the top down”.
“We have a professional political class at Westminster that has become increasingly isolated from ordinary people, serving corporations and billionaires rather than the communities they should represent,” the spokesperson said.
“With a truly member-led party, we will offer something different: democratic, grassroots, accountable.”
Under the model, the party will be led by a Central Executive Committee (CEC) made up of 16 non-politicians elected by members, rather than a leader.
The decision, approved by only 51% of members, set off a leadership race that many had expected between Corbyn and Sultana.
The competition between its two best-known figures could reopen many of the divisions that have plagued the fledgling party’s establishment.
Since launching the party in a surprise announcement in July, Sultana has repeatedly clashed with party officials.
And less than a month before its founding conference, MPs Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohammed left the group overseeing the project, citing a “toxic culture” towards Muslim men in particular.
Before leaving, both Hussein and Mohammed signed a letter criticizing Sultana for failing to transfer an estimated £800,000 of Your Party donations held by a company she controls.
Sultana has transferred £600,000, promising that the remaining funds will be paid “as soon as possible, once the legal details are ready”.
Sultana did not attend the opening day of the party’s conference in protest against the expulsion of some members who had retained membership of other leftist groups such as the Socialist Workers Party.
On Sunday, the new conference overwhelmingly approved allowing members dual membership in the future – Sultana’s preferred option.
The CEC will be able to exclude groups deemed contrary to your party’s values and will also monitor party strategy, staffing and resources.
A “democratic whip” system would allow the CEC to direct MPs to vote in line with party policy on important issues, although local branches would decide on any sanctions for breaking the whip.
Under the new constitution, the independent coalition of MPs – made up of Corbyn, Ayub Khan and Shawkat Adam – will oversee the selection of candidates for next year’s local elections, as well as a member oversight committee made up of randomly selected members.
It is not known whether Sultana will have any role in the selection process.
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