The time has come for the embattled Socialist party to put a face to its impending election campaign by picking a prime-minister candidate, a senior government official said in an interview in Saturday's Nepszava daily.

The minority governing party is deeply splintered and riding low in the polls, and the fear among its leaders is that the process of choosing a candidate to lead the Socialists into the next election in spring next year could open up dissent ahead of the crucial 2010 budget vote expected at the end of November, thereby compromising the current crisis-government's ability to complete its full term.

But many in the party are worried that the party will suffer an even bigger election bashing than current surveys suggest if it does not have a credible leader in place soon. Meanwhile, heated speculation and manoeuvering over who should head the campaign could further disunite the party.

Csaba Molnar, the head of the prime minister's office, told the paper that in a modern election campaign, it is impossible to produce a manifesto and achieve a decent result without a leader. He said that the Socialist party was a democratic party and he was glad that an internal debate was taking place, but the time had come to make a choice.

Gordon Bajnai, the head of the crisis-management government since April, has ruled himself out.

After speculation in the press that former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcany might possibly make a comeback, people close to Gyurcsany told MTI on condition of anonymity that he was not making any such plans.