The right-wing political party Azzjoni Nazzjonali is folding, just three years after it was set up pledging to "clean up" Malta of "dirt, corruption and migrants".

Its members plan to meet soon to change the statute to transform AN from a political party to an organisation that "promotes and disseminates conservative values" and to approve the structures required to achieve this effectively.

In a statement yesterday, the party said that after an extensive period of deliberation it unanimously resolved that AN's principles would be better served if it ceased to be a political party.

One of the reasons cited was that electoral laws were "deliberately engineered" in a fashion that made it virtually impossible for a third party to be represented in Parliament.

AN also argued that increasing numbers of the electorate had lost trust in the entire political class. It concluded that the real challenges facing Malta were primarily cultural rather than political.

The announcement came after a series of recent meetings about the party's future, which remained inconclusive. The meetings served to explore all possible avenues, given the available resources and commitments of party officials, party secretary John Spiteri Gingell had said.

AN leader Josie Muscat had announced he would step down following the 2008 general election, when the party polled just 1,461 first-count votes (0.5 per cent) nationwide. The reason he gave was that the electorate had shown it was "totally disinterested" in having a third party.

But three months later he said he had decided to retain his post in the party because he strongly believed it had a role to play in ending Malta's political dichotomy.

The party suffered another blow in last year's European Parliament elections, when its three candidates polled fewer than 1,600 first-count votes together, less than half those of the far-right Imperium Europa's leader Norman Lowell.