Seven men, six women on PN block vote list are elected

Significant portion of names on PN executive election block vote list, reported on last week, elected yesterday

The PN executive election block vote list published by MaltaToday last week
The PN executive election block vote list published by MaltaToday last week

Seven of the men and six of the women which MaltaToday reported on 30 October as being on a block vote list of candidates which support Adrian Delia and were thus to be given preference when voters placed their vote, were elected in yesterday’s Nationalist Party executive election.

MaltaToday had been informed that a list of nine men and nine women who support the PN leader was making the rounds among party councillors, who yesterday chose 18 members, nine men and nine women out of a total of 59 candidates to form the party’s executive.

Out of the nine men of the list published in the newspaper, seven, Jerome Caruana Cilia, Robert Cremona, Jean Pierre Debono, Mario Frendo, Pierre Portello, Alex Perici Calascione and Mark Anthony Sammut, were elected. Two people on the list, Ian Vassallo and Mark Alex Mangion, were not elected, with Censu Galea and Ivan Bartolo being elected instead.

Out of the six women on the list, six, Amanda Abela, Roselyn Borg Knight, Lisa Spiteri, Louise Tedesco, Evelyn Vella Brincat and Veronica Perici Calascione, were elected. Three, Stefania Pirotta, Claire Mifsud and Maryanne Cuomo were not, and Paul Mifsud Bonnici, Graziella Galea and Francesca Zammit made it in yesterday’s election instead.

Read more:

Update 2 | Adrian Delia's chosen: Block vote for PN executive election

Following the story about the candidate list being circulated, Alex Perici Calascione and Kristy Debono had both denied that any form of block voting was being planned.

In a Facebook post Perici Calascione had insisted that he has never "instigated, planned or worked to be in or part of any block vote list or practise" in any of the executive elections he took part in.

"Although block voting (whether in a refined or in a crass manner) is and has invariably long been present in all internal political party contests, I am personally against this practise. It is not my way of doing things," Perici Calascione wrote.

Mark Anthony Sammut, who was on the block vote list and ended up being elected, replied to Perici Calascione’s post saying he agreed with the sentiments expressed.

Similarly, MP Kristy Debono had denied rumours she was behind any block vote. She said that she had in previous day witnessed several block votes doing the rounds, some with her name on it and others without.