South Belfast and Mid Down MP Claire Hanna is set to become the next leader of the SDLP after she was the only candidate for the role when nominations closed.
A party statement said Ms Hanna had received the required nominations from SDLP constituency branches and support groups.
She will now proceed for ratification by party members at the SDLP conference on 5 October.
Outgoing leader Colum Eastwood announced last week he was leaving the role following nine years.
He told reporters in Co Derry that the "moment has come to step aside" and that after nine years it was time to pass the baton on to someone else.
SDLP's Stormont leader Matthew O’Toole, whose name had been mentioned as a possible contender for party leader, endorsed Ms Hanna as party leader last week.
He said she was the best person to broaden the party's support base.
In expressing her intention to run for party leader, Ms Hanna said the SDLP has a "real opportunity to grow our electoral reach".
She said: "No other party is fundamentally committed to tackling all three of the major divisions - inequality, sectarianism and partition - limiting our region's potential.
"We must more actively engage voters, including those who didn't grow up in the nationalist tradition, who share our social democratic and anti-sectarian principles, many of whom are curious about the potential of a reconciled new Ireland.
"We need to offer and campaign with a dual mission of making life better in the present, while building for a new Ireland, explaining why we believe constitutional change will improve people’s lives and opportunities."
