Eight MLP contenders for European Parliament

The Labour Party will be fielding a total of eight candidates for June's European Parliament elections after another four were elected by the party's delegates during last night's extraordinary general conference.

The four who obtained the necessary 70 per cent of delegates' votes are: journalist Owen Bonnici; former transport minister Joe Debono Grech; former Labour candidate Robert Micallef and Wenzu Mintoff, one of the founders of Alternattiva Demokratika who recently returned to the Labour fold.

Former eurosceptic Sharon Ellul Bonici and Labour veteran Anton Attard did not manage to obtain 70 per cent of the votes for the second time running after they had failed to be elected in November's election.

Journalist Claudette Abela Baldacchino, who was contesting for the first time also failed to garner the necessary support.

The election process was the only item on the agenda of yesterday's extraordinary general conference where 870 delegates were eligible to vote.

A total of 748 votes were collected and cast. Of these 734 were valid, 12 were invalid and two abstained. The candidates required a total of 514 votes (70 per cent) to make it.

The newly elected candidates will be joining the other four elected last November - Glenn Bedingfield, Louis Grech, Joe Muscat and John Attard Montalto.

The Labour party has managed to achieve its objective to field a total of eight candidates for the European Parliament elections.