The Nationalist Party’s executive meeting may have been cordial but tempers flared briefly outside the entrance to the headquarters when Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando arrived.

The MP was accompanied by two private security guards, who were stopped from entering the building.

One of the guards, Stephen Ciangura, protested loudly with Ernest Tonna, who was charged with allowing only executive members into the building.

“Ernest, I voted for the same party as you,” Mr Ciangura insisted as he was pushed away by other PN canvassers.

The tense situation lasted only a couple of minutes and Mr Ciangura then calmed down and waited outside.

Dr Pullicino Orlando later described the incident as “ridiculous”, insisting that only two weeks ago Mr Ciangura had provided security for the Prime Minister’s birthday party.

“These people have been going to PN headquarters for years, working as security officers, and yet they were today (yesterday) stopped by persons we hardly ever saw there, people who belong to a particular clique,” Dr Pullicino Orlando said.