Coleiro Preca to run for leader

Marie Louise Coleiro Preca will be contesting the forthcoming Labour leadership contest, The Times has confirmed.

She announced yesterday she would be holding a press conference tomorrow about the future of the Labour Party and her involvement in it but would not go further when contacted yesterday.

"I will be saying what I intend doing on Friday," she said holding back from confirming whether she would be submitting her name for the leadership or deputy leadership posts.

Delegates who support her, however, confirmed she will be running for the top job. She joins another three candidates who have already confirmed they will be standing: Joseph Muscat, Michael Falzon and Evarist Bartolo.

The news of her contesting the leadership race comes in the wake of Alfred Grixti's surprise announcement that he will be contesting the post of general secretary.

Unlike the three contenders that have put their name forward so far, Ms Coleiro Preca - who was being touted as a possible contender from the word go - started being mentioned less frequently in the past couple of weeks.

A general secretary for the party between 1982 and 1991, Ms Coleiro Preca, who has been an MP since 1998, is known to enjoy strong support among the grass roots and possibly even delegates, though the front runners so far still appear to be Dr Muscat and Dr Falzon.

Following Alfred Sant's resignation on March 10 after Labour's third defeat at the polls, the date for the general conference that will elect the party's new leader has been set for June 5.

On the same day, nominations for the posts of the deputy leaders will open with another general conference held a week later.

Meanwhile Mr Grixti announced that he will be taking on Jason Micallef for the post of general secretary again. He had been runner-up to Mr Micallef, the incumbent, and lost by some 19 votes in a contest which had seven candidates, last time round.

"The truth of the matter is that after the general election, many people from various levels of the party, including activists and those in the core of the party asked me to consider standing for the election of general secretary once more," he said yesterday.

Two weeks ago he took part in a Net TV discussion programme on a post mortem of the election.

"Following the programme," he said, "many people contacted me, welcoming the way I expressed my views and making comparisons with Jason Micallef's participation on Xarabank a few days earlier."

The chat show on TVM appears to have been pivotal as before that he was having trouble making up his mind, Mr Grixti said, not least because he enjoys his current job as a head of school.

He commended the three candidates who until yesterday had declared their candidature for the party leadership officially, saying the MLP was lucky to be able to choose from such people.

He said he would be prepared to serve under any of them. As general secretary, he said, his role would be to provide the backing which the party leader needed. Dr Gonzi found that backing at the last election, but it was lacking for Dr Sant, he remarked.

Mr Grixti is a former MLP education secretary and is currently deputy mayor of Żebbuġ. He has a blog on timesofmalta.com.