Lawyers Noel Bartolo, Leonard Caruana, Lara Lanfranco and Elaine Mercieca are to be appointed magistrates, the Office of the President announced on Thursday.

It follows a list of nominations for the post sent to the president by the Judicial Appointments Committee.

A public call for applications had been issued by the Justice Ministry and 28 applications were received by the committee.  

Justice minister Edward Zammit Lewis said the appointments were an "important judicial milestone for our rule of law process" because they came after a "transparent & objective process". 

Each was evaluated by the committee with a shortlist of suitable candidates sent to the Office of the President with a recommendation for the appointments.  

The president accepted the unanimous recommendation of the committee.

The Office of the President said the other nominees who the committee also considered as worthy for appointment were: Abigail Critien; Ilona Debono, Joseph Gatt, Jean Paul Grech, Maria  Karlsson; Elizabeth Quintano, Nadia Helena Vella and Claudio Zammit.  

Thursday's appointments follow the recent retirement of a magistrate and the appointment of another two to serve as judges.  

Magistrates Neville Camilleri and Audrey Demicoli and lawyers Christian Falzon Scerri and Ian Spiteri Bailey were appointed judges in April. Soon after their appointment, the government faced calls for the number of magistrates to be increased.

The Association of Judges and Magistrates had said it was disappointed that the government had issued a call for only four new magistrates when the number of magistrates would actually only be increasing by one since two magistrates have been appointed judges and another has retired.

The association insisted that the number of new magistrates should be no fewer than six.