SNP members are considering defying party leaders who want them to select a woman to stand as their candidate to oppose Labour’s Kezia Dugdale at next year’s Holyrood election.

Activists in Edinburgh Eastern, where ex-Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill is not seeking re-election, are to discuss rejecting an all-female list which party headquarters wishes them to use.

Scottish Labour leadership candidate Dugdale has already been selected to fight the seat for her party. If elected as party leader she would also top the party’s regional list, elected under proportional representation.

Delegates from the 1200-strong SNP Edinburgh Eastern branch voted against women-only shortlists at the party’s conference in March. Despite their opposition to the policy, they have been told to have only women on their list of candidates.

Branch member Raymond Lennox said activists would be considering what action to take when they meet early next week.

“I have no problem with our candidate being a woman, as long as she is the best candidate,” said Lennox, a former Labour supporter who joined the SNP after the referendum.

“But a woman who is selected from a women-only list will always face the accusation she did not get selected on her own abilities and was only selected because she was on a women-only list. It’s going to be a potential weakness in her career.”

He said the position of women in politics was improving with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon and UK Green Party leader Natalie Bennett reaching the most senior roles without such help.

“At our branch meeting we will discuss whether members can just not vote for the candidates from the all- women list. I will certainly be looking at ways of opposing it and I imagine at lot of other people will be too,” he added.

Another member of the branch, who did not want to be named, added: “Candidates are basically applying for a job, and yet men are excluded. To my mind that is sexist, a clear example of discrimination and fundamentally wrong.”

Under the rules passed at the SNP’s spring conference, the party’s national executive committee can direct that an all-women shortlist should be in place in a constituency which has a retiring SNP MSP.

The policy also means an end to all-male shortlists. In any constituency where more than one candidate is nominated, there must be at least one woman on the list.

It also gives the party’s national executive committee a say on ranking for the regional list, allowing it to take steps to balance the number of male and female candidates.

The policy changes were adopted to counter an under representation of women among the SNP’s elected members at Holyrood and to encourage a wider participation of women in politics. Currently just 17 of the party’s 47 MSPs are women.

Male SNP hopefuls seeking nomination can try to get onto the party’s regional list system or by seeking to get nominated in an area which doesn’t have an all-women list.

Edinburgh Central, where SNP cabinet minister Marco Biagi is standing down, has also been directed to have a women-only list.

However, the contest in Edinburgh North and Leith where the veteran Labour MSP and former Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm is stepping down, is expected to be open to men.

But candidates face a harder fight to get elected when they stand in a constituency which is not their own and where they may not be so well known.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has put gender equality at the heart of her premiership and one of the first steps she took in government was appointing a gender-balanced cabinet.

Under her leadership, the number of women joining the SNP has also soared. Before the referendum only 33 per cent of the party’s membership was female. The figure had increased to 44 per cent when the women-only shortlist rules were approved in March.

Speaking ahead of the rule change, the First Minister said she believed “100 per cent” that people should be selected for posts on merit, but that measures should be looked at to address the factors in society which were “holding women back”.

“People say to me, ‘I don’t want quotas, I don’t want all women shortlists, because I believe people should get on on merit’. I absolutely 100 per cent believe in that – I think people should get on on merit.

“The problem is that’s not what happens very often just now.”

Alex Lunn, convener of the SNP Edinburgh Eastern branch, said: “Conference agreed to a policy of giving the NEC the discretion of having an all-women short list in constituencies where a sitting SNP MSP is retiring. Edinburgh Eastern has been designated as one of these constituencies. It is my duty as convener to ensure that party policy is adhered to.”