Delia’s lawyer and supporter struck off PN voters’ list over freemasonry

A lawyer and public backer of PN leadership candidate Adrian Delia has been struck off the voters’ register for the upcoming 16 September election, after admitting to having been a freemason.

Arthur Azzopardi was a member of the breakaway Malta Grand Lodge, whose members were suspended from the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Malta.

The PN said that Article 5(b) of its statute bans members from being part of any secret society, a resolution that was first taken back in 1991 when the party declared freemasonry to be against its principles and interests.

Azzopardi was himself suspended from the Malta Grand Lodge due to disagreements with fellow masons.

Photo shows Arthur Azzopardi (left) at a Malta Grand Lodge meeting being addressed by Mario Vella Gatt

Freemasonry became a minor theme in the taut PN leadership campaign after Karol Aquilina, the president of the PN’s administrative council, posted an enigmatic message on Facebook suggesting that freemasonry “would be the worst thing to happen to the party”. It was interpreted as a dig at Adrian Delia, after the administrative council issued a statement calling on the newcomer to “reconsider” his candidature following a PN ethics inquiry dealing with an offshore client account he serviced.

Since then, Church media organ Newsbook published a photo of two PN members who were suspended by the Nationalist Party for being freemasons, photographed in the party’s Hamrun club posing with leadership candidate Adrian Delia and MPs and backers Kristy and Jean-Pierre Debono.

Olvin Galea and Jonathan Pace were long-time canvassers for Mario de Marco, but in 2015 were suspended by the PN after MaltaToday revealed they were freemasons.

Adrian Delia has denied being a freemason.