News that the Nationalist Party had “dissolved” a statute-set commission to select electoral candidates was met with surprise by many party members who insist the decision breached the PN’s statute.
In an interview with The Malta Independent, PN general secretary Clyde Puli said that the internal PN commission, set up during the last legislature and headed by former EU commissioner Joe Borg, had been “dissolved”. The selection of candidates is now being done by Mr Puli and “a small number of other people”.
The decision was met with disdain by many members of the parliamentary group and PN councillors who argued that neither Mr Puli, nor PN leader Adrian Delia had the right to dissolve the commission.
“It is not up to the general secretary or the leader to decide whether there should be a commission or not. The commission is set up according to the statute and can only be dissolved if the statute is changed,” a member of the executive council told this newspaper.
“It is not ideal that we learn about what is happening in our party through an interview in a newspaper. Mr Puli should have had the decency to at least state his intentions to the party first and not to the media.
This is unacceptable and is just an example of how the party under the current leadership has lost its way
“This is unacceptable and is just an example of how the party under the current leadership has lost its way,” a top party official and member of the administrative council said.
The commission, set up when Simon Busuttil was party leader, had the role of acting as a sieve to grill individuals wanting to contest local, general and MEP elections on behalf of the PN.
Following the commission's recommendation, it was still up to the administrative and executive councils of the party to decide whether to accept or not the recommendations. According to Mr Puli, he is now selecting the candidates himself together with a number of unnamed individuals.
Asked yesterday to name the other persons who are assisting him in scouting new PN candidates, Mr Puli did not reply.
Neither did the former parliamentary secretary give details as to which authority he used to dissolve the commission and whether his decisions are according to the PN statute.
“The identification of prospective candidates goes through a very wide process where the administrative council, the executive committee, MPs within the PN parliamentary group and the PN’s local committees are asked to nominate potential candidates,” he said when asked about his decision.
“As has always been the case, it is the administrative council which proposes to the executive committee that finally approved party candidates.”
Asked whether the PN had changed its statute to allow for this change, Mr Puli failed to reply.