Sunday, 30th November 2008
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.
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Comments
Kenneth Busuttil
Labour Delegate
On the other hand, I do not agree with those who argue that the three people mentioned in this article are the PL's most heavyweight candidates. Although I do agree that these three will give more quality to the PL's line up.
In my book, what gives more weight to a candidate is his/her perseverance! And one Sharon Ellul Bonici certainly has it all. She came back from being an outcast of the ex MLP to be one of the strongest possibles for the PL, not only because of her experience within the European Parliament but also because she is young, versatile and has a fantastic personality.
Definitely that even the pn would have good contenders as the labour have apart from these three but for sure that these are must for our politics .
Goodluck guys and well done to joseph that he managed to get them on board
Pn candidates for the general election have in the past confirmed that they were approached and encouraged by party leadership to contest the general election on behalf of the pn.
What`s wrong in approaching prospective candidates fot the european parliament elections? You must be envious of Labour`s line-up for the european parliament election, hence your comment. None of the your party`s euro parliament hopefuls measures with Labour`s line-up. We understand your preoccupations, Jason.
very true, candidates such as them are a must for any party that wants to better itself. It is with individuals such as these that the political credibility of the PL will increase in stature.
@Jason
:)
Wow.
How inspiring to have politicians who are running to please the leader, rather than shallower reasons such as, say, personal ambition.
My name is spelt KIRILL
I am a medical doctor and senior lecturer at the UOM
A number of prospective PL MLP candidates were personally approached by leader Dr Joseph Muscat, including myself.