A meeting of the PN Executive Committee has concluded, approving the election regulations hours after the party began accepting applications for the leadership post.
Earlier in the day, some sources within the PN told The Malta Independent that pro-Delia members were mulling the idea of seeking to get the committee to waive the need for Adrian Delia to be subjected to the due diligence requirements for the leadership race, on grounds that he is the current incumbent leader.
However sources within the PN's Administrative Council, which held a meeting prior to the Executive Committee, said that Delia has now called for a full due diligence process on all candidates, including himself.
This was then confirmed in a statement. PN Leader Adrian Delia said that during the Administrative Council meeting he requested that the Electoral Commission ensure the procedure as laid out in the recently approved PN statute be followed "in the most rigorous way possible."
"I insisted that, not only should the verification and due diligence processes be enforces, but I insisted that the exercise be done in the most rigorous way possible on every member who expresses an interest in contesting the election, including on myself."
"I feel that it is in the interest of the PN as well as in the interest of the due diligence process itself that it be done with the greatest care that one expects with such a process."
In a statement later in the evening the PN said that the Executive Committee approved the leadership election regulations put forward by the PN’s Electoral Commission. “The Executive Committee also approved the terms on which the verification and due diligence process on candidates will take place. According to the statute, the Candidates’ Commission has a maximum of six weeks to conduct this exercise. Final approval of these regulations and terms will go before the General Council.”
Earlier, the Malta Independent tried to speak with members of the Executive Committee as they entered the building, however most were mum. They were asked if they believe Delia should be exempt from passing through the due diligence process.
PN MPs on due diligence process from The Malta Independent on Vimeo.
PN MP David Thake said that "he believes it should be a fair contest for everyone. So if there is a process that should apply, it should apply to everyone in the same way."
Executive Committee member Mark Anthony Sammut said that they will discuss the situation internally and see what happens.
PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami said that these are not matters that they decide, and that there are Commissions that decide those matters and they need to abide by them