[attach id=248850 size="medium"]Claudette Abela Baldacchino[/attach]

The Labour Party has decided to allow former One journalist Claudette Abela Baldacchino to contest this week’s casual elections for two vacated MEP seats despite pending charges of defrauding the European Commission.

Last year, following an investigation by Olaf, the EU’s anti-fraud office, Ms Abela Baldacchino – in her capacity as a member of the EU’s Committee of Regions – and another five local councillors were charged with defrauding the European Commission of some €96,000 in travel expenses.

The alleged abuse came to light after an Olaf investigation found that the councillors were over-claiming on their airfares and pocketing the difference.

According to Olaf, the councillors were claiming €599 for flights to Brussels when the actual cost was €446.

Despite denying the charges the accused local councillors did not seek re-election.

Last March, Ms Abela Baldacchino – a long-time deputy mayor of Qrendi – did not contest the council election.

However, when nominations for the by-elections opened last week, Ms Abela Baldacchino was the first Labour candidate to submit her nomination to become an MEP.

Ms Abela Baldacchino is considered to be one of the frontrunners to fill Labour’s two vacant seats, with the other main contenders being Marlene Mizzi, Sharon Ellul Bonici and Glenn Bedingfield.

Ms Abela Baldacchino did not reply to a series of questions sent by e-mail; nor did she return telephone calls even though a man who answered her mobile said he would be asking her to do so.

When asked to confirm whether Ms Abela Baldacchino was defying informal instructions not to contest these by-elections, Labour’s spokesman said that since she had contested the 2009 MEP elections before the fraud charges were issued, it was up to her to decide on whether to contest the by-elections.