This Is The Average Age of People Who Will Decide PN’s Leader
The Nationalist Party will get a new leader next week in a historic election which, for the first time in the party’s history, will be decided by the party’s paid-up members (tesserati).
There are over 20,000 tesserati who are applicable to vote in the election, which is a race between firebrand lawyer Adrian Delia and Gozitan MP Chris Said.
Yet the demographics of the tesserati – seen by Lovin Malta – are hardly fully representative of Maltese society. Indeed, their average age is 60 years old, a few years off the pensionable age.
This would explain why the candidates’ campaigns have both focused heavily on reaching out to elderly people. Said has said the government should pay grandparents who take care of their grandchildren while their parents are at work, and launch a new scheme for people who want to continue working in the public sector beyond retirement age.
Adrian Delia has pledged elderly people will be given an active role within the PN
Delia on Wednesday delivered a rousing speech, during which he pledged elderly people will, under his leadership, be given a more active role in designing the PN’s policies.
Men make up 54.7% of the PN’s tesserati, while women make up the remaining 45.3%. The women members have an average age of 62, which makes them older than the men, who have an average age of 58.
The PN did not have available statistics on which parts of Malta the tesserati live, but Lovin Malta has heard from reliable sources the tenth district (comprising Sliema, St Julian’s, Gzira and Pembroke) has the highest concentration of them.
Chris Said wants the government to fund elderly people who take care of their grandchildren
Delia, who has presented himself as an “anti-establishment” candidate will go into the election as the favourite after winning the first round amongst the PN’s councillors last week and drawing mass enthusiasm and hope from his supporters.
However, sources close to Chris Said’s camp have told Lovin Malta the MP is still very much within a chance as he is polling well amongst elderly people and people from the northern districts – a good sign considering the PN’s demographics.
Also, most of the people previously campaigning for former candidate Alex Perici Calascione are now helping out Said – a good sign for Said, given he and Perici Calascione combined had obtained a higher number of votes from the PN General Council.
Delia, on the other hand, is being supported by the other former candidate Frank Portelli, who had only received 11 votes from the General Council. Portelli has gone all out in his endorsement of Delia, sending SMSes to voters to try and convince them not to believe reports linking the former Birkirkara FC president with a prostitution ring in Soho.
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