The PN’s new leader Adrian Delia looks all set to be sworn in as Opposition leader when Parliament reconvenes next week after party’s assistant secretary general Jean-Pierre Debono agreed to give up his seat.

“This was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to take in my life but I felt I had to take it for the good of the PN,” Debono – who had supported Delia throughout the leadership campaign – said on his Facebook wall. “In this moment of proof for the PN, we must put aside our personal ambitions and look to the future so that we can become a united and effective Opposition.” 

Since his election last week, Delia has struggled to convince a MP to give him their seat, and indeed MaltaToday reported PN MP Ivan Bartolo had turned down the leader’s compensatory offer for a consultancy role.

However, Debono’s decision has opened a clear path to Delia’s entry into the House, particularly as Antoine Borg and Sam Abela, the two PN candidates on the seventh district most likely to take his seat in a casual election, have both declared they will do everything possible to help the new leader out. This would either mean not contesting a casual election at all or going up against any PN and Partit Demokratiku candidates who decide to contest the casual election and then instantly resigning to make way for Delia.

Debono, the husband of Nationalist MP Kristy Debono, has recently come under the cosh in the wake of a report by the PN’s electoral commission, leaked to MaltaToday, criticising him for his handling of proxy votes with false signatures in the PN leadership election. 

According to the report, the assistant secretary general had failed to verify the signatures for the proxy votes which had been delivered to him by PN sectional committee members on behalf of PN paid-up members.

Jean-Pierre Debono with his wife Kristy Debono, also a PN MP

The Sunday Times of Malta reported today the seven members of the PN’s electoral commission have resigned en masse after growing fed up at the accusations levelled against it during the campaign.

Last night, PN candidate and surgeon Kevin Cassar resigned from the party in protest at the direction he fears the party is taking under Delia. 

In a strongly-worded public resignation letter to Jean-Pierre Debono, Cassar – a son-in-law of former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami— warned Delia’s battlecry against “hatred” is being used to justify attacks on the leader’s critics and said a personality cult is already being formed around the new leader.

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READ NEXT: 17 Key Things We Learned From Adrian Delia’s Interview With Lovin Malta

Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]