But internal elections are healthy. The presence of a strong competitor breathing down their necks drives all candidates to work harder and perform better.

What isn’t healthy is constant jibes, sneers and immediate assumptions that your non-favoured candidate must be coming from a bad place.

The PN clearly needs to strengthen internal unity – but unity isn’t achieved by avoiding contested elections.

It is achieved by ensuring that everyone rallies around the new leader once all is said and done. And this will take two to tango.

The winner must extend a hand of friendship to the loser and ensure that both he and his supporters feel included in the party’s future. He cannot simply fill all key roles with his own people.

The loser and his supporters must respect the outcome – either choosing to work with the new leader or stepping aside from the party.

Will PL try and exploit a leadership race to make they opponents seem disjointed? Of course, but that’s the political game. It’s up to the PN to not allow their opponents to condition them and to ultimately prove them wrong.

But PN must avoid being their own worst enemies and stop viewing people with suspicion simply for exercising their right to contest a leadership race.

This is a big test for PN, and how it emerges from this internal election could determine whether the party can position itself as a credible alternative government.