The application period for PN members wishing to contest the party’s top post has come to a close, and the two contenders are Leader Adrian Delia and lawyer Bernard Grech.

Other candidates who had been touted as potential leadership contenders include PN MEP Roberta Metsola, PN MP Therese Comodini Cachia and PN Executive Committee member Mark Anthony Sammut, but they decided not to run.

Delia has lost two confidence votes, one in the Parliamentary Group and one in the Executive Committee. This then led to a vote in the General Council, where councillors were given the option to choose whether the party’s tesserati (paid up members) will hold an election for leader, or a confidence vote in Delia. The councillors voted for the former, and thus an election was called.

The two candidates will now undergo a verification and due diligence process. Sources told The Malta Independent that the Candidates Commission had requested and attained from the party's Executive Committee and Administrative Council the right to appoint independent, and external advisors to oversee the due diligence process.

This could take up to six weeks, however on 3 August PN Secretary General Francis Zammit Dimech said that he expects the process to conclude by the first half of September. “Realistically we need to wrap up the leadership election in time for the Independence Day celebrations. That should be our aim,” he had said.

After the due diligence and verification process, the next major step will be the election itself which will take place during a General Convention. There, the PN’s next leader will be announced, bit it newcomer Bernard Grech or incumbent Adrian Delia.

The PN has lagged behind the Labour Party in the polls since 2013.

The Labour Party currently holds a 15% lead over the Nationalist Party, a survey published by it-Torca showed. The survey, conducted by statistician Vincent Marmara, shows that the PL currently holds 55.9% support of the electorate – 0.9% more than the support it had in the 2017 general election.

The PN meanwhile holds 40.8% of the electorate’s support – 2.9% less than what it garnered during the 2017 general election.