Bernard Grech has formally filed his nomination for the post of leader of the Nationalist Party.

Grech will be the only candidate for the leadership election, which the party was tied to holding after the PN’s crushing 2022 general election defeat just under two months ago.

He passed the party’s due diligence process on Wednesday, paving the way for his candidature.

Grech encouraged party councillors to take part in this “democratic exercise” at the party’s general council.

It is set to take place on Friday 27 May and Saturday 28 May.

“I am determined that with the strong support of the councillors I can continue to take the decisions which are necessary for us to come together and create a stronger, and winning party again,” Grech wrote on Facebook.

The current PN leader will need a majority (50% + 1) of the votes from the party’s councillors, which number around 1,600.

Grech’s nomination had to be seconded by three MPs, five local councillors, ten members of the executive, 50 members of the general council, and 50 PN members, as per the party’s statute.

Grech has been PN leader since the latter part of 2020, having taken over from Adrian Delia following a bitter split within party ranks.

That split has since appeared to cool, and Grech has in the weeks following the general election defeat said multiple times that things in the party need to change, particularly as it seeks to gain control of its €32 million financial debts.