The Nationalist Party general council has voted to hold a convention in which paid-up members will be asked to elect a leader.

This is the position put forward by the rebel MPs who last month gave a vote of no confidence in current incumbent Adrian Delia.

Saturday's vote will trigger a new contest for the leadership, to be held in a date that is still to be established.

Adrian Delia has said that he will be re-contesting.

In all, 839 councillors (55.6%) voted to have a leadership election while 659 (43.6%) voted to confirm or reject the present leader. Eleven votes (0.8 per cent) were invalid.

Voting time at the PN general council closed at 6pm.

Nationalist Party councillors, totalling 1,630, were asked to decide whether a convention should be held to confirm or reject Adrian Delia as party leader, or to hold an outright election for the leadership.

More than 93 per cent of the councillors voted - 1,509. The result was made official at 8.20pm.

The president of the Executive Committee, Alex Perici Calascione, said on PN media  that the process leading to an election for the leadership is longer than the one that would have been in place had the convention been asked to confirm or reject the current leader. This is because there has to be a call for applications before the convention meets.

Last month, the majority of PN MPs and later the majority of the executive committee voted against Delia’s leadership. It was later decided to hold a general council to decide the party’s future.

Delia was elected party leader in September 2017, but he immediately found internal opposition from a group of MPs and other officials who openly criticised him. Delia is blamed for not uniting the party, while his supporters say that he was never allowed to work as too many spokes were put in his wheels.

The group of rebel MPs picked Therese Comodini Cachia to replace Delia as Opposition Leader, but Delia refused to resign saying that he had the backing of the paid-up members. The President of the Republic, George Vella, was asked to intervene to break the impasse but ruled that since Delia is still the leader of the largest political group in parliament – the PN, of which the rebel MPs still form part – he should remain as Opposition Leader.