Petitioners campaigning for a change in the leadership of the Nationalist Party fear that amendments to the vote of confidence question being piloted by the party administration are intended to give Adrian Delia a higher chance of success. 

“Our campaign has been based on a 'yes' vote for Dr Delia to resign. However, if the PN has its way, the roles would be inverted as a 'yes' vote would suddenly become an endorsement for Dr Delia to remain at the helm,” sources close to the petitioners said. 

The matter is set to be debated on Tuesday in what is expected to be a highly-charged executive committee meeting, which is being convened on the request of the petitioners who last week cried foul on how preparations for the vote were being handled. 

Scheduled for July 27, the confidence vote will be held during an extraordinary General Council meeting, which is the party’s highest organ.

A formal request to hold this vote was presented in a petition submitted on June 25 which was endorsed by 200 General Council members, under a proviso in the PN statute which says that an extraordinary meeting must be held if backed by at least 150 members.

In their request the petitioners – including entrepreneur and PN candidate Ivan Bartolo and former executive committee president Mark Anthony Sammut – called on the 1,500 council members to decide if Dr Delia should shoulder political responsibility for last May’s double electoral defeats in the council and European elections by resigning. 

Consequently, a 'yes' vote would convey a very strong message for Dr Delia to make way. However, following a meeting of the electoral commission presiding over the vote, it emerged that the PN wanted to change the question so that a 'yes' vote would actually endorse Dr Delia. 

While the wording was not revealed, various sources said that this was on the lines of whether councillors would want the PN leader to remain at the helm until the next general election. 

This change in question was justified on the grounds that the June 25 petition had been rejected as 84 of the 200 signatures were invalid or belonged to councillors who had not paid their party memberships.

Consequently, the PN is insisting that this extraordinary General Council is only being held on the request of Dr Delia himself, and hence he has the right to set the agenda and the wording of the question. 

It is now up to the executive to confirm we are going to honour our statute

As expected, the petitioners were up in arms against this change and requested an urgent meeting of the party’s executive committee to discuss the way forward. 

“The attempt to change the question is only meant to give an advantage to Dr Delia as it would disrupt our campaign and fuel confusion among councillors,” sources close to the petitioners said. 

Moreover, they cried foul on the list of eligible voters saying there had been “internal manoeuvres” to change it after they had submitted the petition. 

Following consultations with electoral commission chairman Francis Zammit Dimech, general secretary Clyde Puli and Mr Sammut himself, who filed the request for the urgent meeting, committee president Alex Perici Calascione on Sunday announced this would be held on Tuesday at 6pm. 

Mr Sammut said he welcomed the decision: “It is now up to the executive to confirm we are going to honour our statute and go ahead with the motion as presented by more than 150 councillors." 

He added that this was what Dr Delia had promised in the July 4 executive committee meeting and in an opinion piece published in The Sunday Times of Malta.

“It all boils down to whether the party’s administration wants to respect our own rules,” he said. 

Fellow petitioner Mr Bartolo said that Dr Perici Calascione was doing his job and following the right procedures, but declined to comment further. 

On his part, Dr Zammit Dimech said he would be guided by whatever decisions would be taken by the executive committee. 

“I remain committed to ensure a fair and transparent voting system in line with all relevant procedures laid down in the party statute,” he said. 

Meanwhile, General Council members backing the petition for a vote of confidence expressed their disappointment on how the matter has been handled so far by the party.

“We are back to square one, as on Tuesday the executive will be discussing matters which we thought had been done with during the July 4 meeting,” a council member said. 

“It seems like the party is trying to make it as hard as possible to put Dr Delia to the councillors’ scrutiny,” he added.