Labour's CEO will be picked by leader, not delegates

Labour leader Joseph Muscat plans to personally handpick a CEO for the party and will not leave the appointment in the hands of the delegates, who last week re-elected Jason Micallef as general secretary.

"It's an idea that has been on my mind for quite some time. I think we badly need a CEO to manage the structure of the party," he told The Times yesterday.

Asked if this meant the CEO would be taking over the general secretary's post, Dr Muscat said: "It would mean that the elected posts within the party, including that of general secretary, would have to be redefined. This is part of a process that will lead us to be a real, effective organisation."

The Sunday Times broke the news on Sunday saying that appointing a CEO was likely to mean the general secretary's role would be downsized and restricted to purely administrative tasks - the post could even become part-time.

It also reported that Mr Micallef's re-election hastened Dr Muscat's plans to effect changes in the upper echelons of the party's administration sooner rather than later.

In yesterday's The Times, Dr Muscat wrote in his weekly comments - this time titled Earthquake Warning - that last week's elections hastened, but when pressed to say what he meant by this, he preferred not to comment.

"At this point in time I rest my case on what I said in the article. In the next few weeks, after the summer recess, we'll start going into the details of the changes," he said.

Yesterday, Mr Micallef would comment when asked whether the leader's decision to downsize his role and appoint a CEO had come as a surprise.

Asked about this "seismic" shift in the party's administration, all he would say was: "He's the leader and I have nothing to add to what he said."

Meanwhile, Dr Muscat said he will be calling on the National Executive to call an extraordinary general conference to implement a series of wide-ranging changes. The changes will involve the party's structure, the way it is organised, and electoral issues.

Would this promised "earthquake" help bring the party closer to the people?

"I'm looking at a situation where the views within the party and those outside are more in synch," he said.

Dr Muscat recognised that he had a tough job to unite the party and move forward but he felt a lot had been achieved in the past few weeks and there was a willingness by many people to get their act together.

Would people accept the proposed changes and could he persuade the party that this was the way forward?

"Well, they'd better move forward. This is what I stand for. I know that what I will be proposing will not be to everyone's liking but these are wide-ranging changes that include how the people who take decisions are chosen, and the way we must move to represent the wider spectrum of society," he stressed.

The resistance to Mr Micallef was linked to his role in the March general election defeat, Labour's third in a row, which exposed rifts between him and various party officials.

Environment spokesman Leo Brincat, who had urged delegates not to vote for the incumbent in a letter to The Sunday Times, yesterday welcomed Dr Muscat's proposed changes: "In my opinion it's a very bold and courageous article (in Dr Muscat's column), which shows vision and determination."

Meanwhile, Dr Falzon and Mr Bartolo preferred not to comment, noting they felt they had said enough and it was now up to the new leadership to decide.