Oliver Scicluna, chairman of the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability, is expected to be co-opted to parliament, filling the seat vacated by the surprise resignation of newly re-elected MP Gavin Gulia on Wednesday. 

Sources told Times of Malta that Scicluna had been hand-picked by Prime Minister Robert Abela for the post, beating other potential candidates such as Żebbuġ mayor Malcolm Galea. 

It will be Scicluna’s first foray into party politics, after several years of work within the disability sector. 

Scicluna is a pioneer within that field, having founded a number of disability rights NGOs and then advising the government on its national disability policy. 

In 2014 he was appointed chairman of the National Commission for Persons with a Disability and two years later he was made Malta’s first Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability – a role he continues to fulfil to this day. 

Scicluna has also served on several government boards, including that of Transport Malta, Jobsplus, the Valletta 2018 Foundation and Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector. 

Scicluna could not be reached on Wednesday evening. 

It is not the first time that a chairman of the disability commission has ended up in parliament. Lawrence Gonzi headed the commission between 1987 and 1996 and resigned when he became general secretary of the PN and an MP. He went on to become PN leader and prime minister.