Petitions to shore up support for Adrian Delia gather steam

MaltaToday is informed that more than 800 PN paid-up members and more than 200 councillors have signed petitions insisting general council cannot depose the leader

PN leader Adrian Delia
PN leader Adrian Delia

A petition among Nationalist Party councillors calling on Kristy Debono to deny the request for a confidence vote in the party leader has collected 216 signatures so far.

The petition seen by MaltaToday, which is identical to the one being signed by paid-up members, insists it is only tesserati at the party convention that can elect the leadership.

The second petition circulated among tesserati has so far collected 810 signatures, MaltaToday is informed.

The petitions are asking the general council to bring MPs in line and express full confidence in leader Adrian Delia.

An extraordinary meeting of the general council can be called if not less than 150 councillors make such a call.

On Tuesday, a petition signed by 200 councillors called on Debono to hold an extraordinary general council and vote on a motion asking Delia to resign in the wake of the European and local election results.

Debono accepted the petition yesterday despite irregularities in the signatures and asked the PN executive to set a date and the agenda for the general council.

However, the counter petitions are calling for collective responsibility to be shouldered for the election defeats.

“There is no doubt that a divided party cannot win an election. It is no secret that since taking his oath, Delia was prevented from working serenely by those who have done all they can to stop him being leader. The less than ethical behaviour of certain MPs and officials has not helped the situation.”

The petitions are also critical of “pseudo-bloggers and pseudo-NGOs” – ostensibly a reference to the Nationalist-leaning Repubblika NGO and spokesperson Manuel Delia – as “a main factor” in the election drubbing.

The members and councillors express their full trust in Adrian Delia and are calling on Kristy Debono to kick-start the process for the necessary changes that can make the PN a “winning party”, welcome back aliented former members, as well as take steps to “prevent MPs and officials clearly showing they will not work collectively, from damaging the party”.

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