Nationalist Party tesserati (party members) have signed a counter motion stating that Party Leader Adrian Delia was democratically elected, in a bid to stop him from asking for a vote of confidence.

This may have been in response to the over 150 PN councilors who have also inversely signed a petition that calls on PN General Council President Kristy Debono to hold a general council in which a secret ballot would take place on whether Delia should "shoulder political responsibility and resign," a senior PN source told this newsroom.

Delia has been facing calls to resign since the result of the last round of elections, which saw Labour win with a majority of over 40,000 votes. The PN leader has remained steadfast and refused to resign or call a vote of confidence. He addressed a number of executive committee and parliamentary group meetings, presenting a 10-point programme during his last meeting with MPs.

In their counter motion they insist that Delia was democratically elected through a popular vote in the General Convention made up of all the party members, and that the same party statute says that "the General Council is the highest organ of the Party with the power to change the decisions of every other organ, except as provided in articles 37 and 38 in said statute".

"Article 37 clearly states that "the General Convention elects the Leader, Vice Leader for Parliamentary Affairs, Vice Leader for Party Affairs, and for the first three months of every legislature confirms the Leader as well as the Vice Leader for Parliamentary Affairs and the Vice Leader for Party Affairs."

"This is why in lieu of this statute we are asking that every type of request made for an extraordinary General Council with the scope of a confidence vote for the Party Leader by a number of councilors from the same party be refused."

"The Party Leader was chosen by the party members and no person has the right to change that decision. This as permitted by the statute and much less the respect towards the vote and will of the party members, towards democracy and the rule of law."

The motion insists that "collective responsibility" must be shouldered for the results of the recent elections, and that only mature discussion done in the interest of the party, and not personal reasons, will get them to the "true reasons" for the loss.

"The behavior of these deputati along with a systematic campaign, coordinated and organised with the help of pseudo-bloggers and/or pseudo-NGOs were a key factor that led us to this defeat."

"The same people that were the causes for the great loss of the 2013 election and who the party members ser aside in 2017 are the hidden hands behind this political maneuver."

The motion requests that a process of needed change begins to once again become a winning party; that the doors are opened wide for all who is really interested in the party to be given a chance to contribute to this change; that everyone be asked to pull one rope with the deputati and officials being asked to be the leading positions to give an good example to the partitarji; that all possible steps are taken for those deputati and/or officials that keep showing clealy that they do not wish to work collectively with the Leader and the leadership are not allowed to do more damage - "these individuals are putting the future of the party at serious risk"; and that a process is started to bring back people that were ejected from the party because of the attitude and actions of those that wanted to keep the party under their control at all costs.

Sources told  this newsroom  that a significant number of paid up members have already signed it