Norman Lowell places nomination for MEP elections

Imperium Europa party leader Norman Lowell is among the list of candidates who submitted his nomination for the European Parliament elections to be held next month.

His name is included in the list of nominations issued yesterday evening by the Electoral Commission. Mr Lowell was convicted last year of inciting racial hatred and insulting the President of Malta in speeches in Rabat and Qawra in 2006, carried on the internet. He was eventually given a two-year jail term suspended for four years and fined €500.

According to the Constitution, a person is disqualified from contesting elections "if he is serving a sentence of imprisonment exceeding 12 months... or is under such a sentence of imprisonment the execution of which has been suspended".

As a result, Mr Lowell is not qualified to take part in the euro parliamentary elections.

An appeal from the sentence was dismissed last October after it was found that his fundamental human rights had not been violated by a judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal and a Constitutional application where Mr Lowell argued that he was denied the right to a fair hearing by the appeals court was eventually dismissed.

Mr Lowell had then requested the First Hall of the Civil Court to hear and decide the constitutional application with urgency as he wished to contest the European Parliamentary elections. Mr Lowell also contested the European Parliament elections in 2004, winning 1,603 votes.

Apart from Mr Lowell, the list of candidates who placed their nomination yesterday, as announced by the Electoral Commission, includes Claudette Abela Baldacchino, John Attard Montalto, Ruben Attard, Glenn Bedingfield, Maria Dolores Camilleri, David Casa, Mary Gauci, Louis Grech, Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas, Kirill Micallef Stafrace, Maria Mizzi, Joseph Muscat, Edward Scicluna and Christian Joseph Zammit.

The Electoral Commission will continue to receive nominations until today.

The list of candidates only becomes official after the expiry of a period reserved for objections passes.