MLP's three candidates for Presidency

The three candidates being nominated by the Malta Labour Party to become the next President of the Republic are Joe Curmi, Yvonne Micallef Stafrace and Joe Sammut, MLP sources said yesterday.

Mr Curmi is a former chairman of the Public Service Commission and a former Sea Malta official. Mrs Micallef Stafrace, who has an MA in History and is a member of the PSC, is married to Dr Joseph Micallef Stafrace, who briefly served as minister in Dom Mintoff's government in 1971 and who had resigned after a few months. She is also the sister of Dr Stanley Zammit, a former Nationalist MP and parliamentary secretary.

The third candidate, Mr Sammut, is the current Ombudsman.

The government is proposing Dr Eddie Fenech Adami. In last Friday's edition of Xarabank on TVM, 80.6 per cent of viewers who called in said they wanted Dr Fenech Adami to become President.

Some 6.7 per cent wanted someone else without naming anyone, 3.3 per cent wanted former Social Services Minister Professor Edwin Grech, three per cent wanted Ombudsman Joe Sammut, 0.7 per cent Professor Oliver Friggieri and 0.6 per cent former Labour MP and finance minister Lino Spiteri.

In a survey organised by Xarabank a month ago, 58 per cent had said they agreed Dr Fenech Adami should become the next President. Around five per cent of those who wanted Dr Fenech Adami said they had voted for the MLP in the last general election.

In a Sunday Times survey published on February 15, 54 per cent of respondents said they thought Dr Fenech Adami should be President.

The role of the President in Malta goes beyond the ceremonial role that many attach to it.

On a radio programme Mhux kelma bejn tnejn presented by former MLP deputy leader Dr George Abela and Fr Joe Borg, former President Ugo Mifsud Bonnici revealed last week that during the 1998 political crisis, the prime minister, Dr Alfred Sant, used to visit him regularly to keep him informed about the situation and Dr Mifsud Bonnici had also given him advice about what he could do.

Dr Sant said at an MLP rally on Friday that the Labour parliamentary group would be voting against Dr Fenech Adami's appointment but would not be boycotting him once he was elected President.

A number of people from the floor started shouting and insisting they wanted to boycott the President, rather than just vote against him and security personnel had to intervene.

Contacted yesterday, Dr Fenech Adami said if Parliament were to elect him President tomorrow, he would accept "in the circumstances".

"When the prime minister spoke to me about the matter, I repeatedly told him that if there was a person on whom there was consensus in the House, then they should keep me out.

"I don't mind it at all, even at this late stage..." Dr Fenech Adami said.