More Labour candidates for Euro elections likely

The Labour Party could be fielding more than four candidates for the European parliament elections after its executive in a surprise move decided on Wednesday night to convene another general conference that may approve more names.

The party will make a fresh call for candidates in the coming days and those who failed to surpass the required 70 per cent vote threshold at the first conference in November will have the right to try again.

Among those who had failed to make it were former party general secretary Jimmy Magro, former party president Manuel Cuschieri and renowned former eurosceptic Sharon Ellul Bonici.

MLP general secretary Jason Micallef said the decision to call another general conference was prompted by a petition drawn up by Kalkara mayor Michael Cohen and seconded by Josephine Camilleri calling for another general conference to raise the number of candidates to 11.

In the petition, Mr Cohen says it is important that Labour fields as many candidates as possible to attract a wide spectrum of voters in June. The petition also states that the party should have at least one Gozitan candidate and one female candidate.

The petition was signed by about 300 of the party's 900 delegates, 200 more than stipulated by the statute for the convening of the conference, Mr Micallef said.

No date for the general conference has been set but Mr Micallef said the criteria used will remain the same and prospective candidates will require at least 70 per cent of the delegates' vote to get the green light.

Mr Micallef said the party would ideally field eight candidates though, in theory, the number of candidates could remain the same if those contesting failed to go beyond the threshold.

Mr Micallef said that several delegates believed the criteria used were too tough and that the number of candidates being fielded was way too low.

For the European parliament elections in June there will be just one national constituency, which means candidates need some 35,000 votes to win a seat in the European parliament. This was why the criteria used in the conference was tough, Mr Micallef said.

The four candidates who were successful at the first general conference were former Air Malta chairman Louis Grech, Labour MP and former minister John Attard Montalto and journalists Glenn Bedingfield and Joseph Muscat. At a news conference in November, MLP leader Alfred Sant had effectively ruled out additional candidates, saying the decision of the general conference was final.

Asked whether a re-run of the national conference was fair on those elected last November, Mr Micallef replied: "The four candidates we have so far are very valid and the party is very happy with them. But a party ultimately decides in the interest of the party and not of the individuals.

"Besides, it's only logical that more candidates would mean a wider choice," he said.

The date of the general conference will be decided at another meeting of the national executive.