Malta will hold its parliamentary elections on 26 March
Malta will hold a general election on March 26, said Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday, adding that he would ask the president to dissolve parliament. The five-year term of the government ends in June and opinion polls say there is a vote to pass the third successive term to Abela’s center-left Labor Party.
“The future is bright because we are strong in the present,” Abela told supporters during a rally in Floriana just outside Malta’s capital. Abela has been Prime Minister and Labor leader since the January 2020 resignation of Joseph Muscat, who led the party to major victories in 2013 and 2017.
Muscat resigned after the arrest of top businessman Yorgen Fenech, who was accused of complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017. At the time, the media reported that Muscat and his chief of staff were friends. of Fenech’s heart. No one has been charged with involvement in the murder.
Muscat and his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri have confirmed their friendship with Fenech but deny any involvement or prior knowledge of the killings. Despite the resignation of Muscat and other controversies over government corruption, Labor remains popular thanks to a strong economy and generous aid to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its main rival, the center-right Nationalist Party Opposition, meanwhile, has seen three leaders in five years and is struggling to present itself as a united alternative government. The March 26 election will take place a week before Pope Francis is due to visit the island of the Mediterranean. Turnout in the general election is usually strong, exceeding 95%.
(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff and is automatically generated by syndicated feed.)