Scicluna, Grech and Mizzi are MLP's 'preferred' candidates

Edward Scicluna, Louis Grech and Marlene Mizzi have been earmarked as the Labour Party's frontrunners for the European Parliament elections in June.

In an attempt to reach out to moderates, the MLP will be pushing an economist, a serving MEP, and the former Sea Malta chairman, sources close to the party told The Sunday Times.

Former Labour leader Alfred Sant and deputy leader George Abela will not put their names forward to contest on the MLP ticket, as applications close today.

The party executive will eventually sift through the list in an attempt to field a wide spectrum of candidates for the June election, which will be new Labour leader Joseph Muscat's first electoral test.

"It's going to be about quality, not quantity," one party official said.

Prof. Scicluna, 62, who was personally approached to contest by Dr Muscat, has enjoyed the confidence of successive Labour and Nationalist administrations through his appointments in key positions.

Other Labour Party applicants so far include MEPs Glenn Bedingfield and John Attard Montalto, Maria Camilleri (who recently rejoined the party's ranks after severing ties with Dr Sant), journalist Claudette Baldacchino, Kyrill Micallef Stafrace, Steve Borg, Sharon Ellul Bonici and Christian Zammit, a Gozitan lawyer.

With seven months to go to the European elections, several individuals have already started campaigning, especially through social network sites like Facebook, even though their candidature has not yet been confirmed.