The 16 MPs who are out of the running for the general election

Updated May 12

One in five of the MPs elected in 2022 will not be re-contesting their parliamentary seat.

Prime Minister Robert Abela officially dissolved parliament on Monday, ahead of a snap election to be held on May 30.

Nine PN MPs, including three former ministers and seven former Labour ministers or junior ministers will not be fighting to retain their parliamentary roles.

PN

Ivan J Bartolo

Businessman Ivan J Bartolo was the first sitting MP to announce back in March 2025 that he would not be seeking re-election.

Bartolo was first elected to parliament in 2020 in a casual election but gave up his seat shortly after to create space for then PN leader Bernard Grech.

He was re-elected in 2022 and has been a regular spokesman on the economy and digital affairs.

Claudette Buttigieg

Claudette Buttigieg, a former Eurovision singer, will be sitting out her first general election since she made it to parliament in 2013 on her first attempt.

The last election saw Buttigieg struggle to retain her seat, however she still made it to parliament through a gender-quota mechanism which awards extra seats to women.

Last year, she told Times of Malta that she would refuse to be elected again through the gender-quota mechanism because she felt women were being “used as a token” of equality.

Ryan Callus

The engineer was another new face on the PN team following the 2013 election.

He held several shadow portfolios during his time in parliament, including planning, lands, the environment and energy.

In a Facebook post last year, he said he had taken the 'difficult' decision not to contest the next election in order to have more time for his young family.

Robert Cutajar

Party veteran Robert Cutajar is another MP from the 2013 cohort calling it quits.

Cutajar, who served as Opposition whip during the last legislature, was a Mellieħa mayor prior to entering parliament.

Chris Said

Former justice minister Chris Said will be vacating his seat in parliament after 21 years.

The Gozitan MP career reel includes a 2017 bid for the PN’s leadership, which was defeated by Adrian Delia.

Apart from his parliamentary career, Said spent 10 years as Nadur mayor is also a former PN secretary general.

Karol Aquilina

Karol Aquilina will end his nine-year-run in parliament, having decided to sit out the next election.

Although no official declaration has been made, Aquilina is informing constituents that he will not seek re-election.

The MP was on the front lines in the battle for justice in journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s 2017 assassination.

Carm Mifsud Bonnici

Former minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici has bowed out of politics, ending three generations of a political family. 

He was first elected to parliament in 1998, taking over the seat that used to be occupied by his father Ugo, who went on to become President of the Republic. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici's father Carmelo (il-Gross) was known to be one of the best orators Maltese politics ever produced.

David Agius

Veteran MP David Agius will not contest the general election, after over two decades of parliamentary experience.  

During the legislature that just ended Agius served as deputy speaker.  

First elected in 2003 Agius served as government whip between 2008 and 2013 a time when a PN government had a parliamentary majority of only one seat. He was tasked with keeping three rebel MPs, which included Franco Debono in line.  

Mario de Marco 

Mario de Marco called time on his 23-year political career, announcing on Monday that he will not seek re-election.

First elected to parliament in 2003, Mario de Marco served his first term as a backbench MP in a PN government.

Following the 2008 general election, he was appointed parliamentary secretary for tourism.

In 2012, he was promoted to minister responsible for the Environment, Tourism and Culture. In March 2013, he was re-elected to parliament and became the party's deputy leader. 

Labour

Aaron Farrugia

Aaron Farrugia quietly bowed out of politics on Monday, when he failed to submit his nomination for re-election.

The Labour MP and former minister, 46, stepped back from frontline politics following his relegation to the Labour backbench in 2024.

An economist by training, Farrugia has been active in the Labour Party since his youth, having led the Labour Youth Forum before serving as deputy mayor of Ta’ Xbiex and co-founding the party think-tank Fondazzjoni IDEAT.

He was elected to parliament for the first time in 2017 and was appointed parliamentary secretary for European funds and social dialogue.

Michael Farrugia

Michael Farrugia is another backbench MP who has quietly faded away.

A former Home Affairs Minister and family doctor by profession, Farrugia was first elected to parliament in 1992.

He was handed his first cabinet role in 1996 as Health Minister in Alfred Sant’s government.

Farrugia returned to cabinet in 2013, holding roles ranging from parliamentary secretary for planning, to minister for Energy, and later minister for Senior Citizens.

Robert Abela failed to reappoint him to cabinet in 2022. 

Clayton Bartolo

Ex-tourism minister Clayton Bartolo was gearing up to contest the next election, but pulled out on Friday blaming a future smear campaign against him and his wife. 

Bartolo resigned as a minister in November 2024 and was kicked out of Labour’s parliament group hours before a Times of Malta exposé about suspect payments to his wife Amanda.

The former MP was first elected in 2017 and was elevated from the front bench to cabinet in 2020 by Robert Abela.

Roderick Galdes

Former housing minister Roderick Galdes, a parliamentary veteran of 22 years, had his path to re-election blocked by his own party on the same day the May election was called.

Galdes resigned from cabinet a day before a Times of Malta article linking his brother to a social housing contractor and following a series of other Times of Malta articles detailing the former minister’s links to other contractors.

He was first appointed to cabinet in 2013 as parliamentary secretary for fisheries.

Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi

EU Funds Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi had told Times of Malta he would not contest the next general election just before the end of 2025. 

He was first elected to Parliament in 2017, and in 2020 he was made Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds. After his successful re-election in 2022, Zrinzo Azzopardi was made Public Works and Planning Minister before eventually moving to Lands and then EU Funds.

During his tenure as Lands Minister, the Lands Authority had reinstated Kurt Buhagiar without his approval. Separately, he had also been reluctant to sign a new concession deal with db Group that could see over €4 million in ground rent deferred to the end of the company’s 99-year concession at St George’s Bay real estate.

Chris Agius

Parliament veteran Chris Agius will retire after a 30-year political career, he told Times of Malta.

Agius, widely known by his nickname il-Wefi, has been a fixture on Labour’s benches ever since he was first elected in 1996.

He successfully contested each election since then, getting elected in seven consecutive elections.

Agius spent eight years in cabinet as a junior minister, first serving as parliamentary secretary for research, innovation and sport, upon Labour’s election in 2013. He later also served as junior minister for planning and lands.

Edward Zammit Lewis

Former Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis will not be contesting the general election, saying he intends to focus on his legal profession.

The lawyer’s decision signals the end of a nearly 30-year career within the Labour Party, including 13 as an MP and eight within cabinet.

Zammit Lewis was first elected to parliament in 2013 and was immediately made a parliamentary secretary by then-prime minister Joseph Muscat and one year later was appointed Tourism Minister, serving in that until 2017.

Zammit Lewis then served two years as a backbench MP before returning to cabinet in 2019 as Equality Minister and then as Justice Minister, overseeing rule of law reforms recommended by the Venice Commission.

He was not appointed to cabinet following Labour’s 2022 electoral victory, serving as a vocal and sometimes critical backbench MP.  

This article was first published on April 29 and updated on May 12 with complete information.