No say for PN members if Grech goes it alone in leadership race

Nationalist Party members will not vote in the upcoming leadership election if Bernard Grech is the sole candidate, according to the party statute.

Grech will only need a simple majority in the PN’s General Council if he runs on his own. The General Council is made up of more than 1,600 party delegates (councillors) from the party’s various structures.

So far, Grech has been the only person to announce his intention to contest the upcoming PN leadership race in a bid to secure a second term. His predecessor, Adrian Delia has ruled out a leadership bid as have successful newcomers Joe Giglio and Mark Anthony Sammut.

The PN statute calls for a mandatory leadership contest if the party is in Opposition following a general election.

If more than two candidates contest, a secret vote will first be held in the general council to whittle down the list. The top two candidates will then face off in an election among party members. If only two candidates contest the leadership, the decision will be taken directly by the party’s membership base.

However, if only one person is running for the post, members will not get the chance to vote and the decision will be limited only to councillors.

In the leadership race of two years ago, Grech had obtained 69.3% of the members’ vote to beat incumbent Adrian Delia. At the time, 18,362 card carrying members voted in a leadership race that kick-started with a revolt within the PN’s parliamentary group.

Grech had obtained 12,663 votes against Delia’s 5,622. There were 77 invalid votes.

The timeline for the leadership contest will be decided by the PN executive, which will also determine when the general council will be held. This is likely to be after Easter.

However, the executive has to wait for the PN parliamentary group to be complete after Tuesday’s casual elections. Once the parliamentary group is at full complement, MPs will have to choose 13 among them to have voting rights in the executive.

Correction: The number of MPs from the parliamentary group who will have voting rights in the executive is 13 and not 16 as originally reported.