The Nationalist Party has chosen Jean Pierre Debono to replace David Stellini in Parliament following a meeting of the party's executive committee.

Debono will be co-opted to Parliament. 

A co-option was needed because Stellini had taken the place of Marthese Portelli in a casual election. Portelli was elected from two districts, the ninth and the 13th, and she had given up Gozo, making way for Stellini's election.

The decision for Debono's co-option was taken this morning at a meeting of the party executive committee, which debated the issue for nearly three hours before a secret vote was taken.

The Malta Independent is informed that the vote was very close, 42 members voting for Debono and 40 voting for Cutajar.

Stellini resigned earlier this week to return to his job in Brussels, opening up a race for his replacement.

The resignation sparked another internal battle within the PN structures, with the pro-Delia faction supporting Debono, who had relinquished his seat in Parliament to make way for the co-option of leader Adrian Delia, while the anti-Delia group pushed for Cutajar, arguing that the replacement for Stellini should come from the same electoral district, Gozo.

In an official statement, the PN said that the meeting also held a "preliminary discussion" on the election result and is resolute to understand the people's message.

The meeting also decided to co-opt Jean Pierre Debono to Parliament following the resignation of David Stellini, the statement said. A vote was taken at the end of a discussion on Stellini's replacement. The party did not give information on the vote counts.

At the end of the meeting, Mark Anthony Sammut informed the members that he was resigning the post of president of the committee.

Asked to comment upon leaving party headquarters, Debono said that the party must analyse the defeat it suffered at the polls in great depth and decide on the way forward.

“If we are going to lose people the party will grow smaller and not bigger,” he said, referring to the resignation of Mark Anthony Sammut from the post of president of the executive committee.

He does not think that abandoning ship is the right way forward, he said, although he admitted that he agreed with a lot of what Sammut said in his statement. 

The party cannot react haphazardly, but it must study what has gone wrong within its internal structures and decide on the direction it would like to take.

The important thing now is to see the party becoming strong again, Debono said.