The clause in the Nationalist Party’s new statute detailing a two-year time bar on any General Council vote of confidence in the PN’s leader will only apply as from the next such vote of confidence.

This means that the vote of confidence in Adrian Delia’s leadership of the party which took place in July 2019 has no bearing on whether another vote of confidence in his leadership can be called.

As the Maltese political scenes waits to see what the next twist in the struggle that has overtaken the PN will be, a number of possibilities and limitations to what comes next have been mooted.

One such limitation is over a possible vote of confidence in a party General Council. With the parliamentary group and the party’s executive voting against Delia’s leadership but with the embattled leader refusing to step down, many see that a vote of confidence at a general council meeting is the next step which the anti-Delia factions can take up.

This idea however has been confronted by a particular article within the PN’s new statute, which was approved unanimously only three weeks ago.

Article 95 in the statute states that once a vote of confidence against the party leader or deputy leader, the general council should not consider another such vote of confidence for another two years.

Barely a year has elapsed since Adrian Delia last faced a vote of confidence, when he was reconfirmed as PN leader with 67% of councillors giving him their seal of approval.

Delia has argued that, according to the new statute, the general council cannot hold a confidence vote after at least two years from the previous one. The PN leader won a confidence vote at the general council just last year.

However, the president of the party’s executive Alex Perici Calascione told the Times of Malta that a vote can be held if 150 councillors petition for it.

Sources familiar with the PN’s statute also told The Malta Independent that because the new statute overrides anything in the old statute, the confidence vote which took place last year is irrelevant in the eyes of this particular statutory clause.

This means that Article 95 does not take into account the July 2019 confidence vote because it took place under the provisions of the old statute. The two-year time bar mentioned in Article 95 therefore only comes into force after the first confidence vote taken under the provisions of the new statute – which would be the next one, whenever it takes place.

This opens the door for a general council to be called with a vote of confidence in Delia’s leadership on the agenda.

A general council can be called either by the party leader himself, or by the party’s executive, or by a petition signed by at least 150 members of the party.

The agenda of the council can then be set by the party’s executive, while points can also be put forward for discussion and voting if they are endorsed by at least 150 members of the party.

It opens the door for a new confidence vote in Delia’s leadership to be held.