Cardona used to represent constituents of the eighth district, contesting on the PL ticket in five consecutive elections before resigning from Parliament last year.

His career in politics ended on a sour note, with Prime Minister Robert Abela telling him to resign as PL deputy leader following court testimony that implicated him in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Cardona’s departure from politics means the 3,218 first-count votes he obtained in the last general election are up for grabs.

Castaldi Paris had won a casual election to replace Cardona last year, but he is likely to face stiff competition from fellow PL MP Rosianne Cutajar.

Cutajar obtained 413 first-count votes on the eight district, compared to Castaldi Paris’ 232, but she didn’t contest the Cardona casual election as she had already been elected on the sixth district in a separate casual election.

However, with the sixth district featuring heavyweights such as Prime Minister Robert Abela and Ministers Silvio Schembri, Ian Borg and Roderick Galdes, Cutajar might well be eyeing the eighth district as an opportunity.

Cutajar recently clashed with Castaldi Paris over an affidavit that Castaldi Paris, a notary, had drafted which implicated Cutajar in a controversial Mdina property deal involving Yorgen Fenech.

In his report, Standards Commissioner George Hyzler wrote that Castaldi Paris’ role “in the affidavit story and its release to the media remains ambiguous at best”. 

MaltaToday reported that Cutajar had subsequently messaged Castaldi Paris angrily to say he must have been “dying of hunger” to draft a fake affidavit against his parliamentary colleague. 

Castaldi Paris told Hyzler that a person had entered his office to threaten his family if he passed on the affidavit to the authorities, but the MP refused to confirm whether he filed a police report over the threat or not. 

Do you think Cardona’s endorsement will help Castaldi Paris?