Calls for the resignation of Nationalist Party general secretary have gathered momentum since the European Parliament election drubbing, The Sunday Times has learnt, as disgruntlement over his performance came to the surface.
In the aftermath of the worst electoral defeat in over five decades, various people from the root and branch of the party are known to be calling on Paul Borg Olivier to offer his resignation.
It is understood that Dr Borg Olivier has privately ruled out stepping down from a post he has only occupied for one year, insisting that "the writing had been on the wall" in relation to electoral performance before he was elected general secretary.
He said when contacted yesterday: "I do not know what people are saying but now is not the time to point fingers. The party has to collectively analyse and interpret the EP and local council election results and understand what people have told us."
When asked whether he would be tendering his resignation, he said: "I will shoulder the responsibility that needs to be shouldered but now is the time for a collective, united effort by the party to analyse the results like we have always done," he said.
Dr Borg Olivier may have been bolstered by the defence afforded to him by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi during the parliamentary group meeting held last week.
A PN member of parliament told The Sunday Times: "The Prime Minister's defence may have stymied the momentum of those requesting Paul Borg Olivier's resignation."
However, a former PN minister said there had been a lot of grumbling about Dr Borg Olivier's overall performance throughout this year from the party's grassroots and members of the executive.
Dr Borg Olivier embarrassed the party last year when he mistakenly sent an e-mail intended for internal party consumption to his Labour counterpart Jason Micallef. The e-mail contained information on the creation of a system of complaints gathering that also involved the ministries.
However, the general secretary's role in the electoral campaign is still unclear with sources saying that he was actually "asked to stay away" by Dr Gonzi's close aides.
In the Prime Minister's first press conference of the electoral campaign, Dr Borg Olivier had introduced Dr Gonzi and stayed on throughout the event. However, in subsequent events he was replaced by MEP Simon Busuttil, who took a more central role.
It was only in the counting hall that Dr Borg Olivier was once again pushed to the forefront - he was the one who had to announce the massive defeat to the media. The Labour Party obtained 55 per cent of the vote, in contrast to the Nationalists' 40 per cent.
While calls for Dr Borg Olivier's dismissal may have been temporarily stopped in their tracks, at least one PN heavyweight has publicly cautioned against making a scapegoat out of the general secretary.
Former minister Michael Falzon, writing today in The Sunday Times, says that despite his defects the secretary general "can hardly be responsible for the mess wrought by others".
Mr Falzon instead points the finger at the "coterie at Castille".
"Although it is the party that lost the election, it is the government that is responsible for the defeat," Mr Falzon says.
In a scathing attack, he also says the government "has lost the plot".
ksansone@timesofmalta.com