Swift move on PN’s deputy leader

The Nationalist Party is this week expected to kick-start the process of electing a new deputy leader following the resignation of Tonio Borg to take up the post of European Commissioner. According to its statute, the party has two months within which to fill the post but PN sources said the intention was to elect the new deputy leader sooner than that. Contacted by The Times, the PN’s secretary general Paul Borg Olivier confirmed the PN would soon be holding a meeting of its executive committee to get the electoral process underway. However, he did not provide any information about dates. “The executive committee will shortly appoint an electoral commission, which will then set the necessary timeframes for an election,” he said. There will be a call for nominations and then a meeting of the general council. Voting will take place among the PN’s 800 councillors. To be elected, a candidate needs two-thirds of the votes cast. If during the first ballot none of the candidates reaches that threshold, the two contestants with the most votes will go into a second round. PN sources said it was not yet clear who will be running for the second most important post in the PN hierarchy,...