The Nationalist Party’s general council, which takes place the coming weekend, will not have the usual elections for posts such as the party’s president and 13 places on its executive committee, as it is due to have this year.

But this will be because the party, as has happened over the past years, at least since 1998, does not hold such elections in a pre-election year, party president Victor Scerri told this newspaper.

The party holds at least two general councils each year, and the spring one focuses on administrative matters while the autumn one focuses on political ones.

It makes no sense, Dr Scerri said, for changes in the composition of the party’s core bodies so near a general election.