Complaints made over PN councillors’ eligibility

The Nationalist Party’s electoral commission has received complaints from at least two PN committees, over irregular nominations of councillors to the General Council that will select the two leadership candidates for election by the party membership.

The commission, headed by former EU commissioner Joe Borg, received complaints from the Sliema and Attard committees, party sources told MaltaToday, specifically over the number of individuals eligible for the General Council vote.

Every party club gets to send one councillor to the General Council for each 350 votes garnered in the last election for the PN. Preference goes to the committee members, but additional councillors must be agreed upon by the committee.

Large PN-majority localities like Birkirkara, for example, get to send some 50 councillors to the General Council.

MaltaToday was told by two MPs that councillors’ lists for their home-towns included nominations who did not even hail from that same locality. For example, in one case Gozitan councillor had been nominated for the General Council to represent Maltese committees.

“The problem lies in the fact that the list of councillors was presented to the commission just days after the general election, and justifiably, MPs and party club committees are annoyed that there has been no form of verification,” one MP said.

Another MP who confirmed the complaints said the lack of verification raised the suspicion that the councillors’ list had been skewed in favour of certain candidates.

So far, three candidates appear to be in the running for the PN leadership, namely lawyer Adrian Delia, who is not an MP, MP and former minister Chris Said, as well as outgoing PN treasurer Alex Perici Calascione. Nationalist MP Claudio Grech, also touted for the post, would not confirm his candidature when asked yesterday by MaltaToday, simply saying that he was keeping his options open.

Nominations for the leadership open tomorrow and close on 19 July, with an election set for 16 September, in time for the party’s annual Independence Day celebrations.

The electoral commission, presided by Joe Borg, includes Matthew Mangion and Boris Xerri from the PN’s electoral office Elcom, outgoing international secretary Trevor Degiorgio, PN women’s section president Marion Pace Asciak, former assistant secretary general Angelito Sciberras, and MediaLink director Isabel Vella.