[WATCH] Delia will not seek confidence vote as he meets MPs after election drubbing

Adrian Delia: I will not seek internal confidence vote

Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia has said that he would not heed advice from former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who suggested  this week that the embattled leader should submit himself to an internal confidence vote.

Delia was answering journalists’ questions as he walked into a meeting of the PN’s executive which has been convened to decide on who will be co-opted to the house in the place of David Stellini who resigned this week. 

Nationalist MPs asked whether Delia should call confidence vote

Asked whether his position was still tenable given that the PN has lost two elections by a record margin this week, Delia said it was.

“That decision is not mine. The party structure has various organs that are able to call a vote of no confidence or start a discussion if they want. It’s a democratic party,” he said. 

Lawyer Kevin Cutajar has formally announced his bid to occupy the Nationalist Party seat vacated by David Stellini, potentially setting the stage for a further rift within the party. Former MP, and Adrian Delia chief political advisor Jean-Pierre Debono, is the other nomination for the seat.

Both men declined to comment as they walked in to the party’s headquarters this morning.

Stellini, who is still the president of the party’s administrative council, said that as a party official he did not feel it was right for him to state which of the two he preferred.

He said the party needed to properly analyze the results from both the local council and European election and decide on a way forward. “We must analyzes the results, all of us, and  I, as a PN official, am prepared to take responsibility,” he said, refusing to wade into whether Delia should do the same.

The majority of MPs and party officials enter the PN headquarters for today’s meeting declined to comment.