PN leadership race: Expressions of interest open today

The Nationalist Party’s electoral commission will start receiving expressions of interest from party members wanting to contest the leadership post on Sunday afternoon.

The commission’s head, Mario Callus, said the call for expressions of interest will open on Sunday at 2pm and close on 29 June at 2pm.

This is the first stage in the leadership election process and any interested members simply have to declare their interest.

The names of prospective candidates will be made public.

Callus said the next stage would be a due diligence process undertaken by an internal commission on the candidates who would have shown an interest. This process he said could last a maximum of six weeks, depending on the information requested by the due diligence board.

It is only those candidates who pass the due diligence process who can then formally file a nomination to contest the leadership post.

Callus explained that if only one candidate is in the running, it is the councillors who get to vote to approve the nomination and a simple majority will suffice.

If two candidates are in the running, they will head directly to a members’ vote, where a simple majority will suffice for the new leader to be declared elect.

If more than two candidates are contesting, the general council is first asked to whittle down the field to two in a secret vote. The top two candidates will then face off in a vote among members.

According to a temporary amendment to the statute approved today, party members up to 18 years of age will be able to vote if they have been members since 1 January 2025. Prior to this amendment they could not vote unless they had been members for at least two years.

The amendment was proposed by the party executive thus ensuring more young people are able to participate in the exercise.

This process could see the PN elect a new leader by September.

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