MLP delegates 'should not be influenced by PN pressure'

Malta requires a strong and credible opposition as soon as possible, Labour Party leadership contender Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said yesterday.

Speaking during a meeting at the party's Rabat centre, she said delegates should not fall for the pressure being piled on by the Nationalist Party over the choice of MLP leader. The PN had an undeclared bias and did not know the MLP. The Labour Party could not be advised by the PN what it needed to do internally to renew and strengthen itself. While the PN was boasting that it was going through a process of renewal and reform, it did not ask for Labour's advice.

Delegates should be left free to decide according to the party's needs so that the MLP would get stronger and be a strong and credible opposition.

It should have the courage to fight all that was bad and to bring all the necessary pressure to bear to ensure that the government does not ride roughshod over the people.

The choice of leader should be in line with the direction the MLP should be taking and out of desire to elect a particular face. Delegates had to make a serious choice according to the party's most pressing needs irrespective of their ambitions and personal agendas.

Mrs Coleiro Preca insisted that what the party needed was unity, absolute loyalty and experience.