Sandra Gauci will be elected ADPD's leader on Saturday, with Carmel Cacopardo announcing he will not contest the chairmanship during the party's annual general meeting.

Gauci will be the Green Party’s first female leader.

In September she had said she will be running for the MEP elections.

Carmel Cacopardo, who has been leading the Green Party since 2017, announced he will be stepping down as ADPD leader in March of last year.

As he reflected on his 66th birthday, Cacopardo had said it was not in the party's interest for him to remain leader for much longer.

On Friday he bid farewell to the leadership role in his blog, saying he is passing on the baton to Gauci. He assures he will remain active in the party.

In the blog post, Cacopardo explains that the party leadership needs to be passed on to someone younger than him and who could take the party to the next general election.

ADPD obtained 4,747 votes in the 2022 general election, translating to roughly 1.6% of the national vote - double its tally in 2013. 

Gauci obtained more votes than a PL candidate who got into parliament through the mechanism.

She was technically excluded by the mechanism since she did not contest with a major party.

In comments to Times of Malta, Gauci had said the mechanism backfired as people voted for men “thinking women would get elected anyway”.

While she believes in the need for some sort of gender-balancing mechanism or quota, Gauci had said the onus should be on the parties to ensure balanced representation.

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