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maltatoday SUNDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2017 News 3 KURT SANSONE GOZO and district 3 are proving to be problematic areas for the Na- tionalist Party even among its own supporters, a recent survey of card- carrying members shows. Almost a quarter of PN members in Gozo prefer neither of the four deputy leadership candidates, a week before early voting, with the number ranging between 19% and 27% in district 3 (Zejtun, Ghaxaq, Marsaskala, Marsaxlokk). The survey of PN card-carrying members conducted by friends of one of the deputy leadership can- didates and seen by MaltaToday, puts David Agius and Robert Ar- rigo in pole position to win the parliamentary affairs and party af- fairs posts respectively. The survey polled around 400 card carriers from the PN's 18,000 fully paid-up members. Agius, who is the preferred choice of 46% of PN members, leads Ed- win Vassallo, who musters 28% of the vote for the post of deputy lead- er parliamentary affairs. The win- ner will replace Mario de Marco. Arrigo enjoys a more handsome lead over his rival Toni Bezzina for the post of deputy leader party affairs to replace Beppe Fenech Adami. The former Sliema mayor is the preferred choice of 66% of party members, while Bezzina just manages 8%. As the campaigns enter the last two weeks, 16% of party members are still undecided who to choose between Agius and Vassallo for the parliamentary affairs race, with the number growing to 18% in the other contest between Arrigo and Bezzina. And while in both races there are party members who indicate no preference for any of the four candidates (9% in the parliamen- tary affairs race and 8% in the party affairs contest), a closer look at the numbers indicates a bigger prob- lem in Gozo and district 3, which comprises Marsascala and Żejtun. In the parliamentary affairs race, 26% of PN members in Gozo have no preference for both Agius and Vassallo. The closest to this are party members in districts 3 and 4, where 19% said they preferred nei- ther of the candidates. In the other contest between Ar- rigo and Bezzina, 22% of Gozitan PN members prefer neither, while the number shoots up to 27% in district 3. In all other districts the percentages are far below these lev- els, with the closest being district 4 where 13% of PN members said they preferred none of the contest- ants. The PN has some 18,000 fully- paid up members and these are expected to choose the two deputy leaders who will flank leader Adri- an Delia. The election will be held on November 18 with early voting happening on November 11. In September, Delia won the leadership contest with the sup- port of 53% of party members, beating Gozitan Chris Said. In the wake of a bruising contest, Delia's allies tried to convince Said to run for deputy leader parliamentary af- fairs. However, the former minister insisted he would only consider if uncontested as had been the case with de Marco in 2013. Vassallo had indicated his will- ingness to pull out of the race but Agius refused to play ball. In the election for the PN ex- ecutive committee held yesterday, none of the 59 candidates for the 18 seats up for grabs were Gozitan. This was further confirmation of the PN's internal problems on the sister island. However, the lukewarm atti- tude in Gozo and district 3 by PN members is possibly a reflection of how the electorate at large in these two districts views the PN. In last June's general election, the PN lost its hold on the Gozo district, where for the first time in decades the Labour Party obtained an absolute majority of votes. In district 3, for the second election in a row, the PL elected four MPs as the PN vote languished at 29%. ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt PN's internal woes more pronounced in Gozo and southern district CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "If there is a car bomb murder that we can solve, it has to be this one. We have never had so many resources thrown at one incident." In parliament Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has already said the FBI had the ability of using their technological expertise to pin down the presence of people in the locality based on mobile phone data. A €1 million reward has also been offered by the State for any information that leads to the iden- tification of the killers. Police have also built a database correlating hundreds of referenc- es of people targeted in Caruana Galizia's blog. "We are ruling out nothing. But we are dedicating special focus to articles which tar- geted people who were accused of illegal activities or of being crimi- nals." Caruana Galizia died three weeks ago in a car bomb some 300 me- tres from her rural Bidnija home. Her funeral was held on Friday at the Mosta parish church where mass was concelebrated by the Archbishop Charles Scicluna. Neither Prime Minister Joseph Muscat nor PN leader Adrian Delia attended the funeral after the fam- ily declared that they were not wel- come. The President of the Repub- lic Marie Louise Coleiro Preca was also conveyed the message that she was not welcome at the funeral. A funeral wreath sent by the Speaker of the House, Anglu Farrugia, was torn up by family members inside the church according to attendees who posted the observation on Facebook. European Parliament President Antonio Taljani and for- mer prime ministers Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi were in attendance. The investigation is being led by Magistrate Anthony Vella. In the first week, the police collected CCTV footage of numerous cam- eras in the locality and beyond, and other information related to the possible whereabouts of cer- tain individuals. The police also managed to gath- er Caruana Galizia's mobile phone from the car in spite of the intense flames, but her laptop was not in the car at the time but at her home in Bidnija. It is not clear if the laptop has been passed on to the magistrate by the family. The family have said that they have no faith in the police but have been collaborating with the magistrate. Police place special focus on criminals mentioned in DCG blog PN deputy leadership contestant Robert Arrigo enjoys a handsome lead over his rival Toni Bezzina