The casual election to fill former minister Edward Scicluna’s parliamentary seat will be held on January 12, 2021. 

Former finance minister Edward Scicluna resigned his parliamentary seat last week but Labour Party insiders have raised concerned about two of the three candidates eligible to replace him. 

Scicluna, who had been finance minister since 2013, sent his resignation to Speaker Anġlu Farrugia on December 30 and took up the post of governor of the Central Bank on January 1. 

His departure has triggered a casual election between the candidates who had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 general election on the seventh electoral district of Żebbuġ and the surrounding neighbourhood.

The candidates are former Rabat mayor Charles Azzopardi, Malta Tourism Authority chairman Gavin Gulia, and Malta Council for Science and Technology chairman Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. 

Party sources have described a feeling of unease surrounding the casual election, as members of the Labour leadership have concerns over two of the three candidates. 

Azzopardi is considered the front runner based on his performance in the last general election getting 2,179 votes. However, he has been described as “problematic” by party sources.  

He was not allowed to contest the 2019 local elections on the Labour ticket, with party sources at the time citing concerns over his conduct when he was mayor.  

Azzopardi has not responded to repeated attempts to contact him.  

The next candidate that has some party insiders concerned is Pullicino Orlando, a former PN MP. Pullicino Orlando, a Żebbuġ dentist, got 1,040 votes when he contested the 2017 election.

Once a rising star in the PN, Pullicino Orlando was embroiled in a planning scandal over his plans to develop a disco in the idyllic Mistra Bay. 

Gavin Gulia meanwhile garnered a final count of 1,569 votes in the 2017 election.

Sources said Gulia was the Labour leadership’s preferred candidate.