PN leadership election on 3 October as Adrian Delia and Bernard Grech are cleared to run

The Nationalist Party leadership election will be held on 3 October with early voting being spread out over the preceding week, the party’s Electoral Commission said.

The date was set after incumbent Adrian Delia and challenger Bernard Grech were cleared to contest by the party’s Candidate’s Commission.

Delia and Grech had been interviewed at length by the Candidate’s Commission and were subjected to a financial due diligence test at the hands of an expert panel. In a very dry communication yesterday, the commission informed the party’s election chief Peter Fenech that both candidates were cleared to contest.

Formal nominations for the leadership race open on Sunday at noon and close on Friday 18 September. Delia and Grech now have to submit their candidature, which has to be seconded by at least three MPs, five members of the local councillors’ college, 10 members of the executive, 50 members of the general council and 50 paid-up members.

The leadership process was triggered earlier this summer when Delia lost votes of confidence in the parliamentary group and the executive.

The general council then decided to go for a full-blown leadership contest rather than a simple confirmation vote in the incumbent.

Both candidates have promised to publish the results of the financial due diligence test.

As part of the process, Delia and Grech had to submit a series of documents including tax returns, bank statements for the last three years and a declaration of assets in the form of an industry-standard due diligence questionnaire.

They also had to present documentation on any pending or past court cases they might have been involved in, as well as a full list of business interests past and present.

Over the past weeks, it emerged that Grech had to settle at least €30,000 in dues on unpaid taxes spanning a number of years. He later admitted making a mistake and clarified that the dues were settled using his family savings.

During the process it also emerged that Delia filed his 2018 tax return a year late. He has so far not given a public explanation why.

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