Race on for Labour's Euro parliament seats

The race between prospective Labour candidates for the European parliament elections kicked off yesterday evening.

Interested candidates had until 6 p.m. to submit their names and the Labour Party later said that 10 had done so.

It is believed that a handful of them only decided to do so, or made their intentions known, at the last minute.

The MLP has decided to limit the number of its candidates to eight and they will be approved through a secret ballot at an extraordinary general conference to be held on Tuesday.

Candidates have now started lobbying delegates for their vote, needing at least 70 per cent of valid votes to be approved. If more than eight obtain more than that margin, the eight with the highest number of votes will make it through.

Each application is subject to the MLP's disciplinary and vigilance board and the candidates will appear before it today and tomorrow. The applications will then be moved for approval by the national executive on Friday before the final list is submitted to the conference.

The applicants are: former MLP general secretary Jimmy Magro; former Air Malta chairman Louis Grech; Maltastar editor Joseph Muscat; journalists Glenn Bedingfield and Gino Cauchi; Labour MP John Attard Montalto; former party president Manwel Cuschieri; anti-EU activist Sharon Ellul Bonici; former Labour MP Sandro Schembri Adami and Labour veteran Anton F. Attard.

One of the candidates who decided to submit his name at the eleventh hour is Mr Bedingfield who said he believed the people had decided the European issue and now the country had to make the best of it.