The Nationalist Party executive decided that a new deputy head of the party will be chosen on a date chosen by the electoral commission between November 29 and December 2.

Nominations open on October 31 and close on November 14.

Francis Zammit Dimech will be chairperson of the electoral commission and Dr. Anne Fenech; MEP David Casa; PN treasurer Boris Xerri, MNPN President Sonia Vancell and MZPN President Kevin Plumpton will be members of the commission.

The executive met today to nominate an electoral commission and establish a time frame for the election of a deputy leader of the party.

The position of deputy party leader arose when Foreign Minister Tonio Borg was nominated as John Dalli's replacement. Dr Borg resigned from his position as deputy head of the party, in order to represent Malta in a non-partisan way.

The meeting, which was scheduled to start at 19.30h, started nearly an hour and a half late, as the Prime Minister and Head of the Nationalist Party Lawrence Gonzi got held up at Parliament.

At around 21.10h, members of the executive started trickling out, with Dr Gonzi and his cohorts exiting at around 21.23h.

Dr Gonzi said that this was an internal matter and would in no way affect House business.