Labour MPs Chris Cardona and Carmelo Abela this morning officially declared their intention to contest the election for MLP deputy leader for parliamentary affairs.(and not party affairs as previously reported)

Their announcements were made in a statement and a press conference respectively Another MP, Anglu Farrugia has also indicated his intention to contest.

The election is due to be held in mid-June.

Dr Cardona is currently the MLP's spokesman on local government while Mr Abela is the spokesman on education. Dr Farrugia is spokesman for justice.

Mr Abela said if elected he saw his role as supporting the leader, whoever he was, and he would work to promote the party's vision for Malta. The MLP, he said, should have a broad vision within a Social Europe of which Malta formed part.

He said that every economic and environment policy adopted by the MLP needed to include the social dimension, not least the importance of the family.

Mr Abela said that if elected he would, with the party leader and the whip, work for better coordination of parliamentary activity. MPs would have better opportunities to explain their work to the party and its membership, and the members would have easier access to the MPs.

Mr Abela, who was also Deputy Speaker in the last legislature, said he would have no problem retaining that role until June, if offered, but if he was elected deputy leader, he would concentrate on that role instead.

Dr Cardona said he felt ready to serve so that the MLP could, as soon as possible, regain the confidence of the majority of the people. That could only happen through the quality of the policies which the MLP adopted and promoted.

The MLP, he said, needed to consolidate the plenty that was good within it while working to ensure that it again united all the workers' movement behind it.

He said the party needed to be more open to new people and new ideas.