PN leader Adrian Delia is practically guaranteed to obtain a parliamentary seat and become Opposition Leader after Jean Pierre Debono decided to resign his 7th district seat and all nationalist candidates eligible for the upcoming casual election declaring that they would trade places with their leader.
The Malta Independent on Sunday exclusively revealed that outgoing Assistant Secretary General Jean Pierre Debono will cede his 7th districts seat to Delia.
This will trigger a casual election process, with the aim of finding a replacement. All PN, PL and PD candidates who took part in the general election on the 7th district will be eligible to contest.
However, it is highly unlikely, if not impossible, for a labour candidate to be elected, while it is also very difficult for Partit Demokratiku candidates, who ran on the PN ticket, to garner enough votes to make it.
The seven candidates, plus Debono, are being hailed as 'heroes' on Facebook
Apart from Debono, another nine PN candidates ran on the district. Beppe Fenech Adami was elected (along with Jean Pierre Debono), while Edwin Vassallo was elected on another district. PD candidate Godfrey Farrugia was also elected.
This leaves seven PN candidates and two from the PD in the running. But all seven PN candidates – Sam Abela, Antoine Borg, Paul Mazzola, Peter Micallef, David Vassallo and Ian Vassallo – have declared that, should they be elected, they will give their seat to Adrian Delia.
Adrian Delia is therefore expected to become Opposition Leader in the coming weeks, though not in time for the budget.