Updated at 3.45pm with Dr Delia's comments
PN leadership contestants Chris Said and Adrian Delia have backed a call for the setting up of a commission to vet all candidates bidding to enter this race.
Dr Said said this would flag any potential conflicts of interests before it would be too late.
Dr Delia said he was completely behind the suggestion, which he had provoked, promoted and insisted be applied at all levels for anyone occupying a senior post in the football world both at club and administration level.
They were reacting to a proposal floated on Facebook by Media.Link journalist Dione Borg.
Mr Borg said that PN delegates had to choose two candidates, one of whom could potentially become the country’s prime minister.
Such commission should have the remit to carry out due diligence on each candidate including their personal assets and interests, he proposed.
In his reaction, Dr Said, who together with Dr Delia, are the only two who so far have declared their intention to enter the leadership race, remarked that Mr Borg’s suggestion made sense within the existing party structure.
He noted that one of the reforms enacted following Simon Busuttil’s election as party leader in 2013, was the setting up of a commission to vet all candidates contesting the general election on the PN ticket.
This set-up would ensure than any potential issues related to the candidates’ commercial interests or otherwise would be flagged now, Dr Said remarked.
“If the PN leadership takes this suggestion on board, I would be more than willing to put myself at the commission’s disposal, and I am convinced that other potential candidates would follow suit,” he said.
Dr Delia reacted to Mr Borg's suggestion on his Facebook page saying that, in politics, it should not only be the party leader but every candidate wishing to serve the people who should go through such a measure.
Following an extraordinary General Council meeting held last Wednesday it was decided that the election would be spilt in two phases.
In the first round, scheduled for the beginning of September, the 1,500 party delegates would vote to whittle down the list of candidates to just two. The next PN leader will then be chosen by party members, who number over 20,000, in a run-off scheduled for September 16.