The Nationalist Party’s Gozo Regional Committee is contesting the party’s decision to co-opt Jean Pierre Debono in replacement of David Stellini, arguing that it goes against the PN statute and the Constitution.

In a letter to the party leader, secretary general and deputy leaders, seen by The Malta Independent, the committee says the decision to co-opt Debono should be declared null also because it is in breach of the electoral law.

In a vote taken on Saturday, the PN executive committee decided to co-opt Debono, from the seventh district, at the expense of Gozitan candidate Kevin Cutajar.

The Gozo committee said that Stellini attended the meeting and was granted a vote in the process to co-opt Debono. It said that Stellini was representing the parliamentary group which he no longer should have formed part of, given that he had resigned his seat in the previous days. His resignation also brought about the automatic elimination from the party executive and as president of the administrative committee.

Stellini should not have had the right to vote but his doing so rendered the vote null, the committee argued, the Gozo committee said.

The co-option of Debono also goes against the Constitution which protects Gozo’s interests in Parliament.

Before Debono’s official co-option, the Gozo Committee called on the PN to take the matter before the party’s administrative committee to investigate whoever was responsible for the list of voters for Saturday’s decision and to declare the vote taken as being null and void.

The Gozo committee reserved the right to take ulterior action.

Replying on Facebook, Stellini said that he retained the role of president of the administrative council until an election for his replacement is held.

He said he returned from Brussels on purpose for Saturday's meeting to make sure that Gozo's vote in the executive council is not lost.

He said that as a PN official he does not comment in public on his intenrions and does not cause harm to the party.