Updated at 10.35 am with Azzopardi's reaction. 

Former MP Jason Azzopardi on Tuesday said his time with the Nationalist Party has come to an end after being left "deliberately isolated". 

The firebrand politician missed out on a seat in parliament following Tuesday’s casual election.

Azzopardi was one of 10 candidates vying for a seat in the ninth district.

In a reaction on Tuesday, Azzopardi said he had faced attacks, "including from within".  

He headed into the election acknowledging that his chances were slim.

Azzopardi had placed third among the candidates who were not elected from the district. He also failed to be elected from the fourth district, which includes his hometown Paola. 

Tuesday’s result sees Azzopardi’s 24-year career as an MP unceremoniously end.

'I will focus on legal profession'

Writing on Facebook on Tuesday, Azzopardi said that 24 years of “relentless” work as an MP had now come to an end. 

He said 34 years of work with the PN had also come to a close.  

Instead of politics, he will now be shifting his focus to his professional career as a lawyer.  

“I will continue to do my duty towards my country on a different path but with the same determination, zeal, and dedication,” Azzopardi wrote.

 

Describing the “mix of emotions”, Azzopardi said he mostly feels a “great internal serenity”. 

He said he was proud to have retained his integrity in the face of “attacks and lies, from near and afar”. 

Azzopardi said he had put his life on the line despite being left “deliberately isolated”, including by those “within”. 

First elected in 1998

The 51-year-old was first elected in 1998, becoming a parliamentary regular on the fourth district, which includes his Paola hometown.

The former MP served in cabinet as the parliamentary secretary responsible for lands between 2008 and 2013.

Azzopardi has made a name for himself as an anti-corruption campaigner, regularly calling out government wrongdoing. 

His vociferous opposition to PN leader Adrian Delia contributed to him losing significant support in the fourth district.

Azzopardi’s first count tally in his home district plummeted from 2,497 votes in 2017 to 1,511 this time round.

He lost out to parliamentary newcomer Mark Anthony Sammut, who won the sole PN seat in the district.

Spats with Delia

Both Azzopardi and Delia narrowly avoided being kicked out of the party over their regular spats on social media. 

Last year, the pair signed a declaration brokered by PN leader Bernard Grech in which Azzopardi backtracked on claims that Delia was in murder suspect Yorgen Fenech's pocket. 

Azzopardi's own relationship with the Tumas magnate came under the spotlight over a Tel Aviv hotel payment he accepted from Fenech's uncle Ray. 

A PN commission found Azzopardi had breached the party's ethics guidelines by accepting the gift. 

The PN commission said that without in any way condoning the breach of ethics, it had no doubt that the gift did not influence Azzopardi in his role, including the cause he has taken up against the institutionalisation of criminality and corruption even when the target of his criticism were and still are the members of the Tumas Group.

Azzopardi was one of the lead figures in the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry, which concluded that the state bore responsbility for the journalist's murder. 

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