Updated 12.10pm with PN reaction
The relative majority of Nationalist Party councillors want party leader Adrian Delia to step down, an internal party survey has shown, just days before they could seal the embattled leader’s fate.
Just under half (46.5 per cent) of respondents believe Delia should leave the post, 41 per cent think he should stay, while 12.5 per cent are undecided. The MISCO survey was carried out among 700 of the PN’s estimated 1,600 councillors in the past week.
The councillors were also asked an open-ended question asking who they would like to see leading the party if Delia steps down. The most popular names emerging were lawyer Bernard Grech, closely followed by MP and lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia, MEP Roberta Metsola, former PN executive committee president Mark Anthony Sammut and current executive president Alex Perici Calascione.
In a reaction, the PN said it had not commissioned any internal surveys (see below).
One senior party official told Times of Malta there is a growing anti-Delia sentiment among councillors, but the vote could still sway in his favour when he faces the general council on Saturday.
“There has been a noticeable shift against Delia in the last few days in most districts, especially in Gozo,” the official said.
The survey results reflect a drastic drop in Delia’s support: he won 67 per cent of the same party councillors’ votes last year.
Almost two-thirds (63.8 per cent) said the PN will lose the next general election with Delia at the helm, while just over a quarter of councillors (23.5 per cent) believe he still can take the party to power, despite opinion polls showing it to be an almost impossible task. The majority of Delia’s opponents are in the 25-35 age bracket.
The survey comes as a stormy PN executive meeting on Thursday decided that the party’s general council will vote on the way forward on August 1 to try to find a solution as Delia refuses to step down despite losing the support of MPs and the executive.
During the council, the party members will decide whether invited to confirm Delia as party leader or whether to hold a leadership election.
'No survey conducted' - PN
In a reaction, the PN said that it had not commissioned an internal survey.
"Partit Nazzjonalista denies that it conducted a survey or any other form of internal surveys as stated, or hiring a particular company as said in the article or any other agencies to conduct such a survey," it said.
Times of Malta stands by its story.