PN General Council members will today finish casting their ballots on whether or not they want Bernard Grech to be the party’s leader, with the outcome expected tonight.

The PN suffered a landslide defeat last general election. The leadership election, which is held by secret ballot, is required as per the PN’s statute, after a general election takes place.

Grech is the sole contender for the party’s leadership and will only need a majority vote among party councillors to be confirmed as the party’s leader. However, he is undoubtedly seeking a strong mandate.

On Monday, the Nationalist Party had said that a total of 15.5% of eligible General Council members had voted during the early voting period.

There are around 1,600 councillors, 51% of whom had voted by Friday evening.

Normal voting began yesterday evening and will continue today, until 5pm. The result is expected at around 7pm.

In a statement this week, the PN’s electoral commission also said that PN councillors who were abroad and wanted to exercise their right to vote were to inform the electoral commission so that a person could be appointed and, on the direction of the councillor, cast their vote. This is known as proxy voting.

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 financial debts.