[attach id=258272 size="medium"]Professor Arnold Cassola.[/attach]

Arnold Cassola has submitted his nomination for chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika, an office he had already occupied.

His nomination is the only one so far although the closing date is June 13.

Prof. Cassola had previously declared he had no intention of running for chairmanship. Why the change of heart?

“There was a bit of a crisis and I think it would have been a pity for Alternattiva not to be active after 24 years and, especially, as this country needs a third party,” he said. He is seeing himself as “a bridge” to take the Green party to next European Parliament elections and hopes that other people would “offer their services to the party”.

He said that AD garnered a record number of votes in the last election.

Asked whether he planned to contest the 2014 EP elections, Prof. Cassola said the issue still had to be discussed in the party structures but “nothing is excluded”.

He had taken the helm of AD in 2008 after the departure of Harry Vassallo.

A year later he unsuccessfully contested the MEP elections.

Is he confident that he would manage to turn the situation round this time?

“That is something that we have to talk about, how to proceed and what strategies we will adopt.”

He said that the electorate should have the option of electing a Maltese representative in a third political group. He cited the case of former European Commissioner John Dalli and noted that only the Greens raised questions about it.

“We are now seeing that not all is well in the land of Denmark,” he added.

Despite the fact that no AD candidate was elected in the MEP elections in 2004 or 2009, Prof. Cassola believes that the experience of 10 years in the EU will give the electorate different insights.

He said the door was still open for other nominees until June 13: “It would be great if there are other people who submit their nomination.”