Nationalist Party treasurer David Camilleri has resigned with immediate effect, after finding himself embroiled in an internal power struggle within the party.

In a lengthy social media post, Mr Camilleri said he was quitting the role to shoulder his burden of responsibility for the weekend’s tumultuous events, but raised the possibility that factions within the party had intentionally engineering the situation to cause the PN maximum damage.

Mr Camilleri was one of the 82 PN executive committee members who voted on Saturday to decide whether Jean Pierre Debono or Kevin Cutajar should assume a seat in parliament vacated by David Stellini.

Factions within the party, including outgoing executive president Mark Anthony Sammut, have since argued that Mr Camilleri should never have been given a vote during that ballot, as the PN statute precluded him from having one.

Mr Sammut, PN MP Jason Azzopardi and others have suggested Mr Debono – one of the candidates for the vacated seat – was responsible for including Mr Camilleri on the list.

Either nobody realised that David Stellini and I should not have voted, or else they realised but stayed quiet.

Mr Debono has denied that claim but also announced that he will not take his oath of office, which was originally scheduled for Monday. 

'Nobody objected to me voting' 

In a lengthy post on social media, Mr Camilleri said that he was not aware that he should not have voted, and that nobody present during Saturday’s meeting had at any point objected to him doing so.

“When I said that I would not be declaring how I would vote, none of the 81 other members present said that I did not have a vote,” he wrote.

Mr Camilleri said that both candidates for Mr Stellini’s seat had called him ahead of the vote to canvass his vote.

“This shows that both candidates had a list of eligible voters ahead of the election, and this included my name and I presume that of Mr Stellini,” he wrote.

“Either nobody realised that David Stellini and I should not have voted, which proves there was no malicious intent,” Mr Camilleri argued, “or else people realised but stayed quiet, to create this situation after the vote to harm the party”.

Mr Camilleri again insisted that his vote had remained secret and called for the ballot to be retaken.

He offered his resignation with immediate effect, saying that one could argue that he should have known he was not eligible to vote, but offered party leader Adrian Delia his loyalty and support.