Updated 1.42pm with Grech's submission of his nomination.

The PN's due diligence committee has written to both Adrian Delia and Bernard Grech to explore ways in which the suitability report it drew up about the two men can be made public. 

PN sources said the commission had e-mailed both candidates on Monday night, giving them the option of either being sent the due diligence report so they could publish it themselves, or allowing the commission to publish the report on its behalf.

Both Delia and Grech have publicly expressed a wish for the report to be published. 

Contacted by Times of Malta, a spokesman for Grech said the leadership hopeful had given the commission the green light to publish the report.

Delia has yet to respond to questions by Times of Malta about whether he has given the commission his blessing for the due diligence report to be made public.

In a statement on Saturday, the commission said the two men had been deemed suitable to contest the leadership post. 

Both Delia and Grech have been in the headlines in recent weeks over their tax issues. 

The Labour Party has slammed the due diligence process as “superficial”, saying it had failed to identify what it termed as serious, well-known shortcomings by both men.

"This was a superficial exercise to hide the fact that both candidates are not suited to hold constitutional office owing to their conduct in professional activity," the PL said.  

The leadership election date has been set for October 3. 

Grech submits nomination

Grech formally submitted his nomination as candidate on Tuesday, and it was accepted, the PN electoral commission said. Submissions must be made by September 18. 

Bernard Grech formally submitting his nomination to Peter Fenech, president of the PN electoral commission.

Following what is now set to be a three-week campaign, a number of dates have been earmarked for early voting so as to minimise the amount of people voting at any one time due to Covid-19 restriction. Early voting will take place on September 25 and 26, followed by September 30, October 1 and October 2.

The general ballot is on October 3. 

Clarification: An earlier version of this article referred to two separate due diligence reports about Delia and Grech. The commission actually drew up one report about both candidates.