Updated [WATCH] | PN councillors present 200 signatures calling for confidence vote in Adrian Delia

PN councillors present 200 signatures calling for confidence vote in Adrian Delia

Updated at 4.05pm

Nationalist Party councillors have submitted a petition withh 200 signatures to general council president Kristy Debono asking for an extraordinary meeting to be held during which Adrian Delia's leadership will be put to the test.

Former PN candidate and entrepreneur, Ivan Bartolo, fronted the initiative this afternoon. He was accompanied by former executive president Mark Anthony Sammut and councillors, Emvin Bartolo and MZPN official Emma Portelli Bonnici.

Adrian Delia was seen leaving PN HQ from a side door just before the press conference started.

READ ALSO: Adrian Delia to face confidence vote in petition to hold secret ballot in General Council

The petition collected more than the required 150 signatures. It calls for a general council to be convened in a week's time and vote on the question as to whether Adrian Delia should shoulder responsibility for the European and local elections defeat and resign.

Bartolo said the 200 signatures were collected in two days and was sure that more could have been collected if the initiative kept going.

The initiative contemplated by the PN statute is a first of its kind.

Bartolo had publicly declared he was pulling out of politics last year, a decision, he said that did not preclude him from taking this initiative as a concerned citizen.

Bartolo said the current situation risked leading to a situation where the PN will be obliterated and this would be a blow to democracy.

"This party needs to start a new page, with a new leader," Bartolo said, adding nobody in the country wanted an Opposition in tatters.