A petition requested a vote of confidence in Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia has been deemed to be invalid, according to reports today.

The party administration is insisting that the vote can only take place on the specific request of the party leader, with his choice of wording.

The PN general council is set to meet on 27 July to discuss the way forward following the 25 May election results.

It was spurred by a petition by a group of anti-Delia activists who are calling upon the leader to shoulder responsibility for the massive defeat. The petition was signed by 150 councillors but, in a counter-move, pro-Delia activists gathered more than 4,000 signatures – including many members – in support of the leader. The council meeting is to be discussed at an executive committee meeting this evening.

Times of Malta today quotes the chairman of the PN electoral commission Francis Zammit Dimech as saying that the original petition was deemed invalid by the party administration. The council scheduled for 27 July is only meeting on the specific request of the leader, and not because of the petition, Zammit Dimech is quoted as saying.

The original petitioners were quoted by the newspaper as saying that this decision “flies in the face of democratic credentials”. The group had never been officially informed by the party about the petition’s supposed invalidity.