Nationalist Party kicks off process to elect new leader

The Nartionalist Party has kicked off the process to elect a new party leader, although current leader Bernard Grech is expected to be the sole contender in the race. 

The PN general council convened on Sunday, almost a month after the party suffed a historic blow in the March general election. The PN lost to the Labour Party by an almost 40,000 vote majority.

After each electoral loss the party is mandated by its statute to hold an internal leadership election, resulting in three leadership changes since it was voted out of government in 2013. 

In the coming days candidates will be able to declare their interest in contesting the election. They have seven days to do so.

Afterwards, due diligence checks will be carried out on each nominee. Once the checks are finalised the results will be passed on to the party’s electoral commission, where it will have a maximum six weeks to review the reports.

Once the nominees are confirmed, the voting process can begin.

The council is made up of more than 1,600 party delegates from the party’s various structures and they will be the ones to decide on the next leader if Grech remains the only contestant. If more than two candidates contest, a secret vote will first be held in the general council to whittle down the list.

The top two will then face off in an election among party members. If only two candidates contest the leadership, the decision will be taken directly by the party’s membership base.  

The party's electoral commission has already issued a statement calling for nominations to be presented by 30 April.

In the 2020 leadership contest that saw Grech beat Adrian Delia, 18,362 card-carrying members voted. But as things stand today it is likely that members will not get a say on who the PN’s next leader will be.  

Bernard Grech already declared that he will recontest the leadership election. No other candidates have expressed interest in contesting the election.

Meanwhile, a MaltaToday survey indicates that almost 70% of Nationalist Party councillors believe that Bernard Grech should remain leader of the party.

Among those who disagree with Grech’s confirmation as leader, newly-elected MP Joe Giglio emerged as an alternative with 3.6% of the vote. He was followed by Roberta Metsola and former PN leader Adrian Delia, who each obtained 3%.