Labour's national executive will tomorrow discuss how to handle the report analysing its March 8 electoral defeat, possibly taking a decision on whether to make it public.
Commissioned shortly after the general election, the report was passed on to the party's acting leader Charles Mangion early last week and has been distributed to only a handful of people within the party administration.
The executive is to decide how to proceed at this point. Part of the discussion will centre around whether to publish the document particularly in light of the fact that the decision to put back the election of party leader to June 5 was taken to allow enough time to analyse what led to the MLP's third general election defeat in a row.
However, given that the members will not have a copy in hand before tomorrow, that decision may well be taken at a later date.
The findings may have an effect on the leadership race. Labour sources say there are three currents: One says the document should not be published (as had happened in 2003); others that it should, while some believe that only a selective executive summary should be put out.
The leadership hopefuls themselves have different opinions on the matter, even though three of them - George Abela, Joseph Muscat and Marie Louise Coleiro Preca - say they are for the publication of the document.
Dr Abela has spoken in favour of this step all along, while Dr Muscat was yesterday quoted as saying he agrees and would like to see it published as soon as possible.
When contacted, Mrs Coleiro Preca pointed out that, besides the right of Labourites to know, making the document public would avoid speculation which is possibly more harmful to the party than the other side being let in on some sensitive information.
"Besides, this is why it was decided to have a longer period leading to the leadership race, to be able to analyse what went wrong," she said.
Evarist Bartolo, on the other hand, said he would rather look into the report before saying whether it should be published or not. "Not having seen the report, I don't know whether it delves into what kind of leadership Labour needs next.
"That's why I'd rather see the content before saying whether it should be published," he said, adding that in a competitive political system it makes sense for a party to keep confidential certain information which might be harmful if it falls into the hands of the other parties."
Michael Falzon, who was asked a question on these lines during one of his campaign activities last week, said he had no opinion on the matter.