PN MPs Chris Said and Claudette Buttigieg have arrived at the President’s Palace in Attard ahead plans to replace Adrian Delia as Opposition Leader and replace him with Therese Comodini Cachia.

A constitutional crisis erupted after Delia insisted he would stay on as Opposition and PN Leader despite losing a confidence vote within the PN parliamentary group.

Therese Comodini Cachia has been chosen by MPs to replace Delia as Opposition Leader.

Malta’s constitution states that if in the President’s judgement the Leader of the Opposition has lost the faith of the parliamentary group, he is obliged to remove the person from their role.

Delia lost the confidence vote on Tuesday evening. Nineteen members of the parliamentary group (two MEPs) voted against him, with just 10 (11 if Delia is included) backing the leader.

He has vowed to stay on as PN Leader until the end of the legislature, insisting that the PN’s paid-up members had elected him to the role of leader. Should Delia stay on, the PN could end up in the anomalous situation of having a separate Party Leader and an Opposition Leader.

Delia has been facing renewed pressure ever since he became subject to a magisterial inquiry over an alleged bribe from Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech to prevent MEP David Casa’s re-election.

The Times of Malta published WhatsApp conversations between Delia and Fenech, before his arrest but after the reveal that he owned 17 Black, the Dubai based company linked to the offshore Panama accounts of Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi and the controversial Enemalta purchase of a Montenegrin windfarm.

Delia has denied all wrongdoing.

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