The Canadian Conservative Party will elect a new leader today after a months-long race that was at times marked by high drama and party infighting - but also witnessed record turnout.

To avoid a repeat of the last leadership election - when technical issues delayed the final result until the early hours of the morning - the party began counting ballots through counting machines earlier this week.

A team of party volunteers is working around the clock to process the large number of votes cast for the five candidates in this race: Conservative MP Scott Aitchison, Pierre Poilievre, Leslyn Lewis, former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, and former Ontario Premier Roman Baber.

417,987 marked ballots were also scheduled to be counted this week, according to party figures - an unprecedented number for a Canadian political party race. Campaign monitors were closely watching the process to ensure the integrity of the election.

In each scheduled round, the party will announce the number of points earned by each candidate, with the first results expected to appear around 7:30 p.m. 

Also, the new leader of the opposition loyal to His Majesty will take over the reins of a party eager to oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and end his nearly seven-year-old government - which has faced problems in recent months such as ongoing chaos at airports and passports, processing delays, a backlogged immigration system, and very high inflation. Despite these issues, recent federal polls indicate that the Liberals and Conservatives remain close.

It may be years before the new Conservative leader gets a chance to face Trudeau in a general election because the confidence and supply agreement the Prime Minister signed with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh earlier this year could keep the Liberals in power until the planned 2025 campaign. Instead, the new leader’s first task is likely to prevent the party from splitting after a campaign that was often acrimonious.

Poilievre accused Charest of being a hardline liberal, while Charest in turn criticized his rival as an extremist seeking support from criminals linked to the Freedom Convoy. Both candidates framed the election as a battle for the party’s identity - with Charest the more moderate on one hand and Poilievre the strong right-wing populist on the other.

While national polls indicate that the currently leaderless Conservative Party is in a stalemate with the Liberals - and there are questions about potential division within the party itself - the Conservative base is clearly energized.

The five leadership contenders have collectively sold an astonishing number of memberships. Poilievre’s campaign claimed to have sold over 300,000 memberships during this race.

The party had received 437,854 ballots by the Tuesday deadline, a respectable turnout rate of 65%. This means thousands of Canadians were willing to spend $15 for membership. More than twice as many votes were cast in this election compared to its predecessor in 2020.