Neither of the two PN leadership candidates is fit to hold constitutional office, the Labour Party said on Sunday.

Referring to a PN statement on Saturday declaring incumbent Adrian Delia and challenger Bernard Grech suitable to be considered candidates, the PL said the vetting which the PN had conducted was superficial and failed to identify serious, well-known shortcomings by both of them. 

"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 PN commission had ignored the fact that Grech systematically evaded tax over a period of 20 years and had had tax arrears of at least €60,000, the PL said. He had also collected VAT from clients and withheld it, somehow without being taken to court, it claimed.  

Meanwhile Delia had still not declared his income of two years ago, and it 2017 it was the PN's own Ethics Committee which urged him to consider the leadership bid of the time, because of his Jersey bank account. 

In view of the shortcomings which the people should know about, the least that the PN Electoral Commission could do was to publish the reports of its vetting process, in the interests of transparency, the PL said.