Roderick Galdes formally challenges Labour vote that blocked his election bid

Roderick Galdes has filed a complaint with Labour bosses, claiming party rules were broken in the vote that blocked him from standing as a candidate. 

The former housing minister was rejected by the PL's top decision-making body, the party executive, in a secret vote on Monday. 

The vote was held shortly before Prime Minister Robert Abela announced the start of the election campaign. 

Times of Malta understands the first vote on Galdes ended in a tie, forcing a second vote, which he lost. 

Roderick Galdes with Robert Abela. Photo: Facebook

But party sources said Galdes is challenging the first vote, claiming one person who took part had no right to do so. 

Had that vote been removed, Galdes would have scraped through and no second vote would have been needed, according to the complaint. 

It is understood that Galdes was referring to economy minister Silvio Schembri in his complaint.

Under the Labour Party rules, only six MPs have voting rights on the executive. Schembri is not one of them.

Roderick Galdes had been organising transport to the party's May 1 celebrations days before he was barred from contesting

Both Galdes and Schembri usually contest the sixth district, making them district rivals. 

Sources said Galdes has asked party president Alex Sciberras to rectify the first vote by removing all invalid votes.

On Tuesday morning, Galdes claimed he was the victim of a “coordinated attack by a political group” but did not say who he was referring to.  

He said the attack was aimed at trying to “tarnish my name and carry out a character assassination through conjecture and false accusations, for which there is no evidence and which were never substantiated.”

Times of Malta has contacted Sciberras and Schembri for comment.  

Galdes declined to comment when contacted.

Galdes was elected to parliament in 2004 and had been part of Labour governments from 2013, first as a junior minister and later as minister in 2020.

Galdes handled the housing portfolio from 2017 until last January, when he resigned following allegations linking him to contractors. He dismissed those claims as “attacks”, insisting that he had “done nothing wrong.”

Asked about his party's decision to bar Galdes from standing for election, leader Robert Abela refused to say whether he agreed.