PN leader Bernard Grech will run in ‘home’ constituencies Birzebbugia and Mosta

The leader of the Nationalist Party, Bernard Grech, will be contesting the fifth and 11th electoral districts.

The Times reported that the party decided the districts for the new PN leader earlier in the week.

The fifth district includes Birżebbuġa, Kirkop, Mqabba, Ħal Farruġ, Luqa, Qrendi, Safi and Żurrieq. The 11th is composed of Mdina, Attard, Mosta and Burmarrad.

The fifth district has elected incumbent MPs Toni Bezzina and Hermann Schiavone. The 11th has elected PN deputy party leader David Agius, as well as Ivan Bartolo, Maria Deguara and Edwin Vassallo.

Grech hails from Birzebbugia, but made his family home in Mosta.

Traditionally Labour-leaning, the fifth district returned a 65% vote for Labour in the last general election, an 8,000 vote deficit.

The 11th district is considered a PN ‘stronghold’ where the party enjoyed a 3,000 vote surplus in 2017 with 55%. The district was previously contested by former PN leader Simon Busuttil, while most of the Labour vote on the fifth went to former Labour PM Joseph Muscat.

The PN has also approved criminal lawyer Joe Giglio as a candidate on the ninth and 10th electoral district, the former PN executive president Mark Anthony Sammut on the fourth and 10th electoral districts and Jerome Caruana Cilia on the sixth district.

The party has also approved trans woman Angela Coleiro for the ninth and 10th districts.