Updated 6.05pm
Nationalist Party MP Hermann Schiavone is calling time on his political career and will not be contesting the next general election.
Schiavone, who represents the fifth district, will make way for party leader Bernard Grech as a candidate in that district.
Grech was co-opted into parliament after winning the PN leadership and will be running for election for the first time.
During the 2017 election, Toni Bezzina captured the lion's share of PN votes in the fifth district, with Schiavone behind him.
Schiavone announced his decision to quit politics on social media on Wednesday afternoon, saying he would be moving aside following this legislature to allow for new blood within the party and parliament.
"I have the reassurance that in my stead the fifth district will have the party leader as a candidate, so voters will have a good choice. Bernard Grech deserves the vote of all those who backed me," Schiavone wrote.
He thanked voters who had backed him.
In a statement, the PN thanked Schiavone for his service, saying he had "always shown altruism towards his constituents and the Nationalist Party" and presented constructive proposals in sectors entrusted to him.
It wished him well and said it had no doubt that would continue to help the party in the future.
A rocky road
Despite being a long-time Nationalist Party loyalist, this was Schiavone's first term as an MP after he won a fifth district seat in the 2017 general election.
A close confidant of former party leader Adrian Delia, Schiavone had a somewhat troubled journey to parliament, with the PN stopping him from contesting on their ticket in 2013 following a clash he had with then-MP Franco Debono. The two have since reconciled.
It was the second time that Schiavone was prevented from contesting: the party had also stopped his candidacy a decade earlier, after then-party leader Eddie Fenech Adami received a letter making allegations about him.
Even once in parliament, Schiavone's political path involved turbulence. In 2019, Schiavone temporarily suspended himself from the PNs parliamentary group after Times of Malta revealed he and fellow MP Kristy Debono had attended a meeting with business tycoon Yorgen Fenech, who is currently standing trial on accusations of orchestrating the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
He rejoined the party's parliamentary group after a PN ethics board concluded that the meeting was "an error of judgement".