Manuel Micallef, a broadcaster and former trade unionist, is to contest the next election on the Labour Party ticket.

He yesterday announced on Facebook that he would stop presenting his talk show on the Labour Party’s station One TV.

“(Labour leader) Joseph Muscat had asked me to contest and I finally accepted,” he told The Times.

Broadcasting Authority regulations do not allow general election candidates to present a TV programme during electoral campaigns.

Mr Micallef will contest the sixth district, which includes his hometown Siġġiewi. He might also choose to contest another.

A former deputy general secretary of the General Workers’ Union, Mr Micallef fell out with GWU general secretary Tony Zarb in 2005. He became a freelance consultant on industrial relations after exiting trade union activism.

On Facebook he yesterday said he had to leave Sibt il-Punt and Folji but they would be continued by new presenters who have yet to be named.

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