PN leadership race kicks off on Sunday with general council

The Nationalist Party executive will meet on Thursday to kick off the process to elect the next leader, who will almost certainly be Bernard Grech.

The executive will decide on the timeline for the PN leadership race, which has to take place since the party ended up in Opposition after the general election.

“The executive will meet to decide on the procedure and relevant timeframes after an explanation of the statute rules,” a spokesperson for the party told MaltaToday.

He added that the formal leadership contest process will kick off on Sunday with the opening of the general council, the party’s highest organ. “The general council opens on Sunday but will only close when the leadership contest ends and the leader is elected,” the spokesperson said.

The timeline will set out the periods for the nomination process, the vetting of candidates, the period for campaigning and the dates when the relevant votes will be taken. The length of the race is determined by the statute but will also depend on how many candidates contest.

So far, incumbent Bernard Grech is the only person to announce that he will be contesting the leadership.

If he remains the sole candidate, Grech will only need a simple majority in the PN’s general council to secure a second term. The general council is made up of more than 1,600 party delegates (councillors) from the party’s various structures.

However, 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 candidates 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.

But members are unlikely to have a say as things stand now with no contender coming forward to challenge the incumbent.

Grech’s predecessor Adrian Delia has ruled out a leadership bid as have successful newcomers Joe Giglio and Mark Anthony Sammut.

In the leadership race of two years ago, Grech had obtained 69.3% of the members’ vote to beat incumbent Adrian Delia. At the time, 18,362 card carrying members voted in a leadership race that kick-started with a revolt within the PN’s parliamentary group.

Grech had obtained 12,663 votes against Delia’s 5,622. There were 77 invalid votes.

The PN suffered a bruising defeat in last month’s election, the third in a row.