The Congress of the People (Cope) today "selected" Mosiuoa Lekota as president, with Mbhazima Shilowa as deputy president while a woman "from the minority group" was considered for second deputy president.

In what is being described as a compromise arrangement of "handpicked" leadership, Cope had still not chosen its second deputy president by 7am today, forcing leaders to work the phones at the eleventh hour to find the right person to fit its progressive image.

An unknown KwaZulu-Natal entrepreneur, Linda Odendaal, had this morning emerged as a contender as the party attempted to find three key qualities in one person - a white woman who does not carry ANC baggage and who hails from a region where Cope desperately needs to make inroads.

Just hours ahead of presenting her name to the plenary session, and the noon address of the new leadership at an inaugural rally at the Free State Eagles cricket stadium, Cope's leaders were still in talks with Odendaal, whose name emerged only after several other women declined selection.

However, provinces could overturn the leadership's proposal.

Talks with former public works minister Thoko Didiza ended on Sunday night when she declined the party's offer to deputise alongside Shilowa.

Communications director-general Lyndal Shope-Mafole was also considered, but it was felt that "she was not of the right colour" and it would "not be appropriate" to field her as a senior civil servant.

Talks with Zahira Ebrahim, the woman who attracted plenty of support and interest when she addressed Cope's November Convention in Sandton, ended last night after she decided against a political career.

Weeks of negotiations with former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka were also fruitless.

It is believed that some party leaders were "gravely" disappointed that no senior experienced leaders from the ANC were prepared to serve.

Although they were still confident that most ANC leaders who resigned from Cabinet or provincial governments would join Cope, other hardliners in the party were angry at the emergence of what they described as an opportunistic tendency.

Cope's steering committee emerged from an hours-long meeting shortly after 2am with a leadership package that, for the most part, endorses the interim team as part of a 64-member national leadership - including a dozen senior office bearers, 30 directly elected executives, four members co-opted from the youth and women, and 18 ex-officio members from provinces.

Former ANC leader Charlotte Lobe and former deputy defence minister Mluleki George were retained as secretary-general and organiser respectively, to appease their restless provinces. Hilda Ndude was retained as treasurer.

Former unionist Willie Madisha was selected to head the sectors, while Deirdre Carter is deputy secretary-general and former ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama will head policy. Former SACP leader Phillip Dexter will also be retained as head of media and Shope-Mafole heads international affairs.

Delegates battled to reach consensus as a number lobbied hard for a dual leadership that would have placed Shilowa as the so-called face of the campaign in next year's elections, leaving Lekota to preside over, and build, the fledgling party.

But Gauteng and Limpopo - provinces that desperately wanted Shilowa to head the elections campaign - eventually compromised.

However, it was finally agreed to postpone that discussion until January when the party finalises its list for the elections and names the person who will take on ANC president Jacob Zuma at the polls.

Striking the right balance between what Shilowa has repeatedly called "the old and the new", former ANC members and fresh new faces, and getting the right geographic and racial spread and gender mix across the executive, were issues that were hotly debated through the night.

An eleventh-hour proposal to name Ngonyama as Cope's national chairman, a position that would have recognised the senior positions he had previously held, was turned down by a majority of the steering committee.

Some said it would have suggested entitlement at the top "which would have sent out the wrong message", while others felt it was "too much old ANC" at the top starting out.

More defectors from ANC's provincial legislatures were expected to be announced today.

Bloemfontein was expected to explode with rival political activity when Cope and the ANC hold separate rallies in the city today.

"In terms of the planning for the rally we have been assured by the police that there's sufficient deployment for the protection of the rally," Cope's Leonard Ramatlakane said.