Ex-MLP general secretary launches leadership bid

Marie Louise Coleiro Preca officially added her name to the list of Labour's leadership hopefuls yesterday, ending weeks of speculation.

"I think I have the credentials to lead the Labour Party," she told a press conference, pushing the fact that she is a woman as one of her assets.

The press conference came after Thursday's puzzling media ban issued by Labour's vigilance and discipline board on the candidates in the leadership contest.

Ms Coleiro Preca had been the only one from those persistently mentioned as potential candidates not to confirm her intentions officially. Joseph Muscat, Michael Falzon and Evarist Bartolo had already made them clear and were given extensive media coverage, while the fifth potential contender, George Abela, has expressed "strong intentions" and commented at some length to different media.

She said she had cleared her position with the party, pointing out that she still was not a candidate when the order was issued (on Tuesday) and, therefore, could make her announcement and abide by the directive after that.

She forged ahead yesterday, in fact, but revealed that late on Thursday night the chairman of the party's internal electoral commission, Joe Falzon, had told her that the decision had been reversed.

All of the candidates had expressed themselves against the decision when the news broke out on Thursday. Yesterday, Ms Coleiro Preca said she too was glad the ban had been lifted.

"I believe we need to be as transparent as possible," she said in reference to the contest. "There are over 900 delegates and you cannot just communicate with them through circulars and letters, you need the media... and, what's more, the party should not be a closed shop. It's not just us and the delegates but the over 140,000 who vote Labour and more," she said, adding that she still feels she would have to respect and give weight to a directive issued by the party's structures.

Known for her popularity among the grassroots - she has consistently been one of Labour's best performers at the polls since she first contested in 1998 - Ms Coleiro Preca has been active on different levels in the party for the past 34 years and served as the party's general secretary between 1982 and 1991.

In fact, she referred to her tenure as general secretary, commenting on the "unfortunate" fact that she remains the only woman to have ever held that office in both parties and used it as an example of how being a woman never affected her political career.

"I feel it's an asset... I always worked well and never found that men were uncomfortable working with me," she said. "It's about competence not about who you are or what your sex is."

Her term as general secretary, however, was also brought to bear during question time in connection with the fact that she held that office during one of Labour's, and the country's, unhappiest chapters.

"I think we didn't work enough on the history of the Labour Party and heard only the version of others..." she said, pointing out that she had gone to express her solidarity at the Gudja PN club a few hours after the shooting dead of Raymond Caruana in the late 1980s along with a number of officials. "...But nobody says that."

She also rejected the idea that she can be legitimately criticised for being old Labour, saying she had proven she can adjust and keep up with the times and the people's aspirations time and again.

She also insisted that, notwithstanding all its defects, Labour had a lot of good. "This party is not a write-off. The thousands who voted for us have shown this and if someone is pushing the perception that we will now write off the Labour Party and start from scratch... it's unfortunate if you ask me. There are good things and there are things which need to be fixed, which is why I'm insisting on the need for a mechanism of self criticism that reviews our performance on a regular basis."

This need for Labour to install a reviewing mechanism to ensure that changes are made continuously and not when disaster strikes, formed part of her leadership pitch, in effect.

She stressed the fact that Labour needed to rediscover its identity and its social democratic values, which incorporate economic and social justice. When questioned, she pointed out that by this she did not mean the extension of the welfare state or a return to state handouts, but an emphasis on a just economic and social system premised on meritocracy.