Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/874823
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2017 3 234 of the members sur- veyed, or 75.97%, said they followed the campaign on television, 128 (41.56%) said they followed it on radio and only 106, or 34.42%, said they followed the leadership cam- paign on Facebook and other social media. 94 members (30.52%) said newspapers were the source of choice for information on the cam- paign. When asked what they be- lieved the PN's biggest prob- lem to be, 104 members, or 33.77%, said that they be- lieved the party's message was not clear. 51 members (16.56%) said the party's most pressing issue was its media, while 49 (15.91%) said the PN was not inclusive. 34 members (11.04%) believe the party's problem is that it does not, at the moment, have convincing propos- als. 60 members (19.48%) said that they did not know what was wrong with the PN, while a further six chose not to answer. Given a clear choice be- tween liberal, conservative, popular and Christian demo- crat, 176 members, or 57.14% said they felt the PN was a Christian democrat party, with 54 (17.53%) believing the PN to be a popular party. 39 members (12.66%) said the party was conservative and only 21 (6.82%) believed the PN to be liberal. Perhaps even more indicative were the 42 members (13.64%) who said they did not know what the party stood for. The results clearly re- flect the party's credo, as also laid down in its statute, of being Christian democrat. It could also reflect the members' aver- age age and a re- luctance to accept the party's move to the centre of the political spec- trum. Arguably, the most indicative outcome of the survey is the fact that only 39.29%, or 121 of the 308 members inter- viewed, believe the PN can win the next gen- eral election. 109 (35.39%) said they did not believe the PN would win the next election. The rest did not answer. These figures could – and probably would – change after the new leader is established at Pietà, but the fact that so many members do not think highly of the party's chances of success in an elec- tion is a cause of concern for whoever the new leader is. pcocks@mediatoday.com.mt News BITTER HARVEST 6 episodes to remember the divisive PN leadership election by Political newcomer The highlight of the contest was certainly Adrian Delia, the litiga- tion lawyer and former Birkirkara FC president, who decided to throw his hat in the ring. There was an instant appeal: hard-talking, gruff, and a charismatic way with his PN electorate, Delia came across as the 'anti-Busuttil' who could fire up the grassroots. Daphne Caruana Galizia The PN's unofficial mouthpiece and anti-Labour polemicist became an early adversary of Delia, outing him as the lawyer to a Maltese property owner in Soho, which he managed through an offshore bank account in Jersey. Her relentless campaign stunned the PN's own army, which had deified her for inces- sant hounding of Labour during Panamagate, now were in her crosshairs if they supported Delia. The 'establishment' choices Nationalist MP Chris Said, a former secretary-general, was reportedly not Si- mon Busuttil's choice for leader. That would have fallen to the untested Alex Perici Calascione. Taken together, the votes for both Said and Perici Calascione indicated a clear split inside the General Council – those voting for continuity, and those who wanted a clear break from the party's establishment. The freemason bogeyman As the establishment gir- dled its loins at the Delia insurgency, out comes PN administrative council president Karol Aquilina on Facebook suggesting the spectre of freema- sonry hung on the con- test. It turns out Delia's lawyer Arthur Azzopardi was once a freemason. Nutshell: Azzopardi loses his right to vote in the election by a statute that expressly forbids freema- sonry. Big debts Delia is a 9% shareholder in a company with legal firm partner and one- time PN candidate Georg Sapiano that has an €8 million debt with HSBC, used to finance the acqui- sition and completion of an apartment complex in Gozo. Delia says there are enough assets to pay off the debt. Soho prostitution raid Delia was at one point managing a client account for London property owner Eucharist Bajada, a Barclays account on the offshore tax haven of Jer- sey, to collect rent for the properties. It turned out this was for Soho houses that were raided in 2003 by the police over prostitution. An ethics inquiry followed, which led the PN's administrative council to ask Delia to recon- sider his candidature. He did not. Outgoing PN deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami (left) with Delia backer David Bonello