Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu could face a no-confidence motion as chairperson of the Green Party tonight.
It was deferred at last week's parliamentary party meeting.
Three senators lodged the motion after Ms Chu decided to run in the Seanad elections without the Greens' official support.
The party decided not to run any candidate, but the Dublin mayor received six personal nominations to get on the ballot paper - including from Green Party deputy leader and Government minister Catherine Martin.
She's now running as an independent - saying that while she has little chance of winning, it's vital to increase diversity and gender balance in elections.
John Downing, political correspondent with the Irish Independent and former press advisor to the Green Party, says the whole situation is 'something of a mess politically'.
However, he told Newstalk Breakfast there could be an effort this evening to 'dial down' the row and avoid a confidence motion.
Explaining what exactly's going on, he said: “It’s something of a mess, politically. There are two vacancies in the Seanad - coalition partners Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil understood they had an arrangement they would effectively take one each.
“The difficulty was the Green Party’s executive took a decision not to contest… it was implicit with that that they would roll in with their government partners and ensure smooth by-elections.
“In the midst of that, Hazel Chu… announced she would contest the election - not as a Green Party candidate, but as an independent. It’s a very strange situation.”
Mr Downing said his latest understanding is there could be an effort to avoid a confidence vote later today.
He explained: "Instead of going for a vote of no confidence they may, in fact, ask Hazel Chu to stand aside [as party chair] for the duration of this by-election campaign… which would take us up to some time after the 20th of next month.
“To add to this bizarre business, she hasn’t a hope in hell of winning [the by-election] - and she has publicly acknowledged that and says the importance of that lies in the candidature.
"That’s the same argument that’s put forward by the party’s deputy leader Catherine Martin - she said it’s important for women to be seen to contest elections."
Mr Downing said it's 'very hard' to see the Green Party avoiding a split in the future due to the tensions and differences between various members of the party.
He said: "We have [Dublin TD] Patrick Costello - who happens to be Hazel Chu’s fiancé - initiating High Court proceedings against the Government he purports to support over the EU / Canada trade deal.
“There are a lot of moving parts, but it’s hard to see unity persisting.”
