District 8 profile: Redrawing the lines

In this profile, Jacob Borg profiles the seventh electoral district, which consists of Balzan, parts of Birkirkara, Swatar, Iklin, Lija and parts of Naxxar. Read all the district profiles here. 

A total of 24 candidates will be vying for the five seats up for grabs in the eighth district, which is traditionally seen as a PN stronghold. 

Eleven of those candidates are from Labour and 10 from the PN camp.

This time round, pockets of the PN’s support in the area may have been eliminated at the stroke of a pen, as parts of Birkirkara were hived off to another district and a chunk of Naxxar added to the eighth district. 

The redrawing of the district lines was backed by Labour and fiercely opposed by the PN. 

PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami, a regular fixture on the eighth district, said the changes shifted 4,177 voters in Birkirkara to the first district. 

These changes have thrown a bit of a spanner in the works for candidates who have worked the district for years, as they are unfamiliar with their ‘new’ Naxxar constituents. 

Cost of living, traffic and parking concerns are regular gripes heard by candidates during their door-to-door work on the district, particularly in Birkirkara.

The district is also coming to terms with a change in demographics, as more third-country nationals seek shared accommodation in the central area.

The contenders

The Nationalist Party won 11,514 votes, 52.16%, of the total vote in 2022, with Labour coming in at 9,807 votes, amounting to 44.2%. 

Smaller parties claimed just 3.42% of the vote. 

This translated into three seats for the PN and two for Labour, with the PN gaining an additional seat thanks to the female gender correction mechanism. 

Fenech Adami, together with former party leader Adrian Delia and MPs Justin Schembri and Julie Zahra – who was elected through the gender quota – will all be vying to hold on to these seats. 

Party insiders are expecting Delia to put on a strong showing, possibly to the detriment of Fenech Adami, who has deep ties to Birkirkara thanks to his father, Eddie, a former prime minister and president who led the PN to victories between 1987 and 2004. 

Schembri has been keeping a lower profile in the media but has been noted for his effort in working the district and knocking on doors. 

Newcomer Edmond Cuschieri, a lawyer and self-confessed first-time PN voter, will be hoping to hoover up some votes from undecideds and Labourites who are on the fence and may be unable to stomach voting for a deeper blue candidate. 

Three ex-ministers step aside

On the other side of the fence, Labour has some notable gaps in its list of candidates when compared to 2022. 

That time round, former justice minister Edward Zammit Lewis was elected hot on the heels of his high-profile colleague Clyde Caruana, the finance minister. 

Zammit Lewis called time on his career as an MP in May, saying he intends to focus on his legal profession. 

The MP was known to have become increasingly frustrated with Prime Minister Robert Abela’s reluctance to elevate him from the backbenches back into a cabinet role. 

Zammit Lewis is not the only high-profile Labour candidate in the eighth district who will not be re-contesting. 

Ex-housing minister Roderick Galdes was barred from contesting on the Labour ticket while ex-tourism minister Clayton Bartolo claimed he was not contesting due to a planned “disgusting and vile attack” against him and his family during the election campaign. 

Between the three of them, the ex-ministers garnered just under 50% of Labour’s first counts in 2022. 

Caruana is considered a shoo-in on the district thanks to his high national profile, leaving a field of ambitious candidates vying for Zammit Lewis’s old seat. 

Junior minister Keith Tanti Azzopardi brought in former Birkirkara heavyweight Chris Cardona to help make introductions on the district last year. 

Although not his main district, Tanti Azzopardi is known to be eyeing a full ministerial post and will be keen to put in a strong showing on the eighth district.

Other notable names contesting on the eighth include Yana Borg Debono Grech, the daughter of former Birkirkara mayor Joanne Debono Grech and granddaughter of Labour veteran and former minister Joe Debono Grech.

Former Labour president Ramona Attard and ex-GWU general secretary Josef Bugeja are two other notable newcomers to the district.

Attard was recently endorsed by Zammit Lewis and has been showering praise on Cardona for his recent election as Birkirkara FC’s president.

Bugeja has seen backing from ex-president Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and will be hosting deputy prime minister Ian Borg and ex-prime minister Joseph Muscat at a coffee morning event next week.

The candidates running on the district are:

ADPD: Mallia Mario.

Aħwa Maltin: Mallia Francis.

Labour Party: Agius Tabone Vania, Attard Ramona, Azzopardi Tanti Keith, Bonello Jesmond, Borg Debono Grech Yana, Bugeja Joseph (Josef), Caruana Clyde, Cassar Rosette, Galea Cressida, Grech John Joseph, Muscat Alex.  

Momentum: Agius Matthew.

Nationalist Party: Castillo Ivan, Cauchi Ludwig, Cuschieri Edmond, Delia Adrian, Fenech Adami Joseph (Beppe), Micallef Angelo, Muscat George, Pace Ross David, Schembri Justin, Zahra Julie.

Read all the district profiles here.