Voting has started to confirm Bernard Grech as Nationalist Party leader. On Saturday evening, we will know the outcome of the exercise.

It is easy to predict that he will obtain the 50 per cent plus one vote required to retain his position at the helm of the party.

But unless Grech obtains at least 90 per cent of the preferences, it will not be a good result.

Last month, in a similar exercise carried out by the Labour Party, Robert Abela obtained 96.7 per cent of the PL delegates’ votes.

Only a result which is close to this will give Grech the extra confidence that he needs to run the party for the next five years.

We have already written that Grech is showing more mettle since the election, in spite of the defeat. It’s as if the election was a burden he wanted to overcome and, now that it has passed, he can look forward to his first real, full term as PN leader. He has now been voted in by the people, not just by the PN councillors and members.

What he needs now is for these same councillors to give him the push he needs for him to take an even stronger grasp on the party.

Remember, the PN is coming from three election defeats at national level, is facing a mountain of debts and the last thing it needs is a leader which does not have a solid following of the 1,600 councillors, those who are closest to the party.

Grech has realised that it will not be an easy ride. In an interview he gave to the party media last Sunday, he stressed the importance of this week’s result. He would like to have a solid mandate, one that will give him the power that he needs to take important decisions – some of which will have to be tough – in a bid to lift the party out of its predicament.

The PN councillors who are voting have a choice to make. They can either give Grech the numbers he needs for him to be in full control, or else put him in difficulty and, by so doing, endangering the future of the party. They can either vote to unify the party or leave it in a fragmented state.

There is one other consideration that needs to be made. As PN leader, Grech is also Opposition Leader. If the councillors do not give Grech a robust backing, the Opposition will become weaker, something which the country cannot afford.

In the past decade, we have had a government that could bulldoze its way through largely because the Opposition was fragile, and more intent on looking within to sort outs its internal issues than giving its all in the best interest of the nation.

Malta needs to have a strong opposition that keeps the government in check. PN councillors taking part in this week’s vote do not only have the party’s future in hand, but also that of the country.