The Government has not yet set a date for the House of Representatives to reconvene in the wake of the March 8 general election, The Sunday Times has learnt.

A number of MPs said when contacted that they were still unaware when Parliament would meet for the first time this legislature.

According to Article 75 (3) of the Constitution of Malta, 'The House of Representatives shall meet not later than two months after the publication of the official result of any general election by the Electoral Commission on a day appointed by the President'. This gives the Government until May 11 to convene Parliament.

This means that by the time Parliament convenes, the Labour Party in Opposition would not have yet chosen its new leadership team. Former MLP leader Alfred Sant resigned irrevocably as party leader but still retains his role as leader of the Opposition until the party chooses its new leader.

The MLP general conference that will elect the new leader will take place on June 5, giving the party time to analyse what went wrong and what led to the electoral defeat. The election for the deputy leadership posts will be held on June 12.

There is also a big question mark on the identity of the new Speaker of the House.

Although the choice of the Speaker is strictly speaking the Government's since it has the majority of seats in Parliament, there are usually informal discussions with the Opposition on who is to be chosen for this post. No names have been mentioned officially so far, though seasoned politician Louis Galea, who lost his seat, is thought to be among the favourites to be approached.

Though many people believe the close March 8 election has yielded the new Parliament, in reality, 12 more unelected candidates - six for each party - can still make it.

The Nationalist Party has not yet established when to call a meeting of its Executive Council to discuss the by-elections and which seats will be relinquished by the candidates who were elected on two districts.

The PN candidates elected on two districts were Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi (2nd and 9th district), Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg (8th and 11th district), Robert Arrigo (9th and 10th district), Dolores Cristina (9th and 10th district), Tonio Fenech (8th and 12th district) and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (7th and 11th district).

Sources close to the PN said that the party's Executive Committee, which will decide which seats are to be relinquished, has a total of 82 members but only 60 of these have a vote. This committee consists of all the party's administration, the parliamentary group, the district representatives, representatives from every branch and 13 members elected at the General Council.

According to the party's statute, within three months from the announcement of the general election result, the party must call a General Council to confirm or otherwise the leader and deputy leader.

The MLP candidates elected on two districts are Dr Sant, Acting Labour leader Charles Mangion, deputy leader Michael Falzon, Helena Dalli, George Vella and Evarist Bartolo. It was decided that Dr Sant will keep the seat he won in the first electoral district, Dr Falzon the 10th, Dr Mangion the fourth, Mrs Dalli the second, Dr Vella the third and Mr Bartolo the 12th.

The Labour Party will therefore hold by-elections on the second, third, fifth, eighth and 10th electoral districts.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.