Mélanie Joly will know Sunday evening whether she will represent the federal Liberals in Ahuntsic-Cartierville.

Liberals in the riding are voting this afternoon to decide who will represent them in the 2015 federal election.

Joly was the dark horse in Montreal's 2013 mayoral race, coming out of nowhere to place second behind winner Denis Coderre. After losing that election, Joly swore she wouldn't jump into federal politics — at least not for the 2015 election.

However, Joly, who is close to the family of Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and has been a rumoured Liberal candidate for years, announced her candidacy in the riding in February.

The race for the Liberal nomination in the Montreal riding is a heavily contested one. Joly will be competing against Grace Batchoun, Viken Attarian and Elie Kassissia.

Her opponents told Radio-Canada earlier this week that they believe the party has favoured Joly above the other Liberal candidates in Ahuntsic-Cartierville. Rumours swirled that the nomination vote date kept getting delayed in order for her to collect enough new membership cards to win.

"Go and see what became of the candidates who dropped out for Mélanie Joly. They got jobs for the party," said Kassissia.

The Liberal Party of Canada said the accusations were ridiculous and unfounded.

Anthony Di Carlo got what he said was an unpaid job working for the Liberals in the Papineau riding.

He and former candidate Norair Serengulian, who still volunteers for the party, both threw their support behind Joly after exiting the race.

Serengulian said it's sad that the other candidates are creating rumours about Joly. He said he simply didn't sign up enough Liberal members to qualify running.

Di Carlo, for his part, said he dropped out for two reasons — first, because he's got a newborn at home, and second, because he knew he wouldn't win.

Whoever wins the Liberal nomination will have to face off against incumbent Maria Mourani, a former Bloc MP who is now running as an NDP candidate.