Yesterday's PN Executive Council's unanimous decision to ban three rebel MPs from the PN electoral list was taken by a show of hands.

Informed sources said the much-anticipated meeting had been calmer than expected, although there were some sharp exchanges, notably between ministers Austin Gatt and George Pullicino with MP Franco Debono.

The Executive decided that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Jesmond Mugliett and Franco Debono should be banned from the PN list of election candidates for having ignored the party whip in parliament. The meeting also approved a provisional list of 60 party candidates, of whom 10 are new (see http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120712/local/new-names-in-old-names-out-in-pn-election-list.428323 )

Former party leader Eddie Fenech Adami attended the meeting, but did not speak.

Early in the meeting Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando insisted that the Executive should not decide on further action before it considered, on Tuesday, his letter calling on the party to expel Richard Cachia Caruana.

There were some light humour exchanges, such as when Dr Pullicino Orlando admitted his e-mail address mistake when he sent his list of witnesses to the Executive, turning on Paul Borg Olivier to tell him that he must know how it felt. Later, meeting president Marthese Portelli kept calling Franco Debono Jeffrey amid light laughter.

Matters however then turned serious, but calm, with the Prime Minister telling Dr Pullicino Orlando that he crossed the line when he voted with the Opposition, and that he had taken the government by surprise when he voted in parliament.

Dr Pullicno Orlando argued that he had been making his complaints, particularly about Mr Cachia Caruana, for years. He must have tired out the prime minister with his complaints, Dr Pullicino Orlando said.

The Executive briefly discussed Tuesday's procedure, with Dr Francis Zammit Dimech insisting that there must be justice and that Mr Cachia Caruana must be given every opportunity to make his case in defence.

Jesmond Mugliett argued that it was unfair to ban the MPs from the list for not having observed the whip in one case when they had voted several times against their own wishes, as in the case of the honoraria and the power station. The votes at issue, he said, were not about matters in the electoral programme.

Dr Pullicino Orlando walked out half-way through the meeting with the exchanges then mainly focused on Franco Debono.

Minister George Pullicino insisted on loyalty and recalled that Dr Debono had said he could work with anyone except Dr Gonzi.

Dr Debono retorted that he had resigned from the party in January, but the party refused his resignation and even sent him the ballot paper to vote in the leadership election.

During exchanges on the party candidates, Dr Zammit Dimech said he had been among the first to congratulate Prof Albert Fenech when he heard he would be a candidate on the 10th district, which is a district he himself contests.

Dr Debono said he had not objected to candidates other than Herman Schiavone, and had actually proposed to the party that Melvyn Mangion (Tonio Borg's communications coordinator and manager of the former National Euro Changeover Committee) should be among the candidates on his district. He said he had never objected to Manuel Delia or architect Bezzina.

There were exchanges between Minister Austin Gatt and Dr Debono after the former argued that Dr Debono should not be accepted as a candidate in view of his vote in Parliament on the Arriva debate.

Dr Debono reacted angrily that he had spoken for the people and his actions had led the government to pull up its socks. He lamented that Dr Gatt and candidate Manuel Delia, who were responsible for the bus service reform, had not resigned, yet he would not be banned from seeking re-election.

The Carm Mifsud Bonnici case was briefly referred to during the meeting. Dr Pullicino Orlando expressed disagreement with what had happened. Dr Debono said that what he had done stemmed from the minister's mismanagement, and he would do the same again.

No one spoke against the ban for the three MPs, with the motion then being unanimously approved by show of hands.