Last updated 2.18am Friday

The General Council of the Nationalist Party will vote on August 1 on whether the party members should be invited to confirm embattled Adrian Delia as party leader or hold a leadership election. 

Delia said that he would stand for reelection should the council vote to have a new leadership race. This, he said would be the third time he subjected himself to a vote, having last year also won a vote of confidence in the council.

The compromise deal was unanimously agreed by the party executive at about 1.10am on Friday, after a six-hour meeting during which party leader Adrian Delia and his rivals debated different proposals for a way forward.

Delia has served as party leader for three years, having been the first leader to be directly elected by the party membership. But his term so far has been dogged by controversy and poor showings in opinion polls and the European Parliament elections. 

His position has been called into question after he lost votes of confidence in the parliamentary group and the same executive itself earlier this month. 

Tumultuous meeting

Immediately before the start of Thursday night's meeting, Delia announced in a Facebook post that he was calling a meeting of the council on July 31 to consider a motion for the party membership to vote on his leadership three weeks later. 

But Delia's opponents objected, insisting in a motion moved by former MP Michael Asciak that a vote of confidence should be held within the council, followed if necessary, by the election of a new leader by the party members.

They argued that in terms of the party statute, the members could not be asked for a vote of confidence in the leader. They could only vote to elect a leader.

Adrian Delia's letter and the motion by his rivals (right) which were at the heart of the heated debate within the PN Executive on Thursday night.

Former general secretary Clyde Puli, insisted that Delia's motion was the "cleanest" way for the party, not for Adrian Delia. He said Delia had committed himself to call an election if he lost the confidence vote.

Delia too argued his motion would do the least damage to the party.

Following tense arguments, the meeting took a break while efforts continued to find a compromise solution. 

General secretary Francis Zammit Dimech gave a rundown of the two competing motions and appeared to be mediating between the two sides. 

"We have to take decisions for the good if the party," he said. His speech was greeted by applause.

Hopes of a compromise deal at about midnight were dashed amid more arguments over the wording of the text to be presented to the council.

Sources said the sticking point was whether the members should be invited to elect ‘a leader’ or ‘a new leader’. The former was eventually chosen and the compromise motion was moved by Delia and seconded by Asciak.

It was backed unanimously. 

The council will meet on July 31 and vote on August 1.

The PN statement announcing the compromise deal.

Delia admits he considered whether to stay or go

Minutes before the meeting Delia also uploaded a Facebook video in which he admitted, for the first time, that he had considered whether he should stay or he should go, before deciding he should fight on.

He said he had heard the pleas of hundreds of people and was finally also inspired by the lyrics of the PN anthem. 

To date Delia had always insisted he would stay on. 

Delia had been resisting pressure to go after losing consecutive confidence votes in the parliamentary group and executive. 

But the situation was further complicated on Wednesday when the rebel MPs walked out of a parliamentary group meeting, insisting that the only item they were prepared to discuss was Delia’s departure.

In further evidence of the deadlock in the PN, former trade-unionist Gejtu Vella also announced that he had resigned his chairmanship of the party’s electoral commission, saying he could not work in a party "beleaguered with factions and internal rifts.”

On Sunday, Delia hinted that he may submit to a fresh confidence vote in the all-important general council after previously arguing that in terms of the new party statute a vote could not be called within two years of a previous vote that he won in July last year. 

“If I don’t win that vote, I am out,” Delia told Times of Malta on Sunday. But he added that if he does, the MPs who had voted against him would have to toe the line or step aside.

He said it would make no sense winning a confidence vote while having to contend with MPs persisting in their “refusal to cooperate”.

Comodini Cachia, who was nominated by the rebel MPs to become opposition leader if Delia was removed, on Sunday described Delia’s three-year tenure as having been characterised by “bullying, arrogance and bad advice” – indicating that the divisions are personal more than based on policy.

The opposing MPs insist that the PN cannot credibly attack the government on corruption and financial wrongdoing when serious questions hang over Delia himself.

The scene outside PN headquarters on Thursday evening.

That situation was made worse when Times of Malta revealed that he had Whatsapp chats with Yorgen Fenech, the alleged mastermind of the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder, when he had already been revealed as the owner of secret company 17 Black, which was meant to be a conduit of funds to former minister Konrad Mizzi and former chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Delia vehemently denies wrongdoing and says nothing that his opponents may dig up can embarrass him.

Observers say votes in the general council and then among the members can go either way – and Delia is seen as enjoying strong support among the party grassroots. 

Members of the PN executive seen at their meeting on Thursday evening.

Those opposing Delia were boosted on Sunday by a Malta Today poll showing Comodini Cachia enjoying the same level of support as Delia among ordinary voters, despite having been cast into the limelight just days earlier. But both trailed badly when compared to Prime Minister Robert Abela.

In the wake of the survey results, Delia said that 'decision time' had come for the Nationalist Party and there was no space within it for rebel MPs.

An important decision 

In a statement issued on Friday, the breakaway group of MPs said Thursday's decision was another important step towards choosing a new leader.

The group said it was now up to councillors to decide whether they wanted an open leadership race or a one-horse race with Delia alone.