There was no unexpected 11th-hour entry as nominations for the British Tory leadership contest closed at noon yesterday.
Tory MPs, and then the rest of the party, must now decide between Mr Michael Ancram, Mr Kenneth Clarke, Mr Iain Duncan Smith, Mr David Davis and Mr Michael Portillo.
Under the untested system introduced by Mr William Hague, the field will be whittled down to just two in a series of knockout ballots of Tory MPs.
More than 300,000 party members will then face a straight choice between the two survivors in a one-member-one-vote postal ballot.
The victor will be announced on September 12th, less than a month before the party's conference in Blackpool, Sir Michael Spicer, who is overseeing the contest as the new chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, announced.
The shadow chancellor, Mr Portillo, is favourite to make the final round.
The former chancellor, Mr Clarke, is considered his greatest rival to succeed Mr Hague despite his Europhile credentials.
The right-wing shadow defence secretary, Mr Duncan Smith, is thought to be closely trailing Mr Clarke.
But the former party chairman, Mr Ancram, and Mr Davis, who headed the Commons spending watchdog in the last parliament, insist they have real hopes.
Mr Ancram continued to claim he was the only candidate who could hold the party together in the wake of a second crushing election blow.
He was proposed by Ms Ann Widdecombe.