Prime Minister Robert Abela has announced he will be contesting the second district in the next general election, tentatively set for 2022.

The newly-appointed PM made the announcement last night on Xarabank after the popular TV show aired a vox pop among Bormla residents, which included an elderly man pointing out that Abela’s new Cabinet doesn’t include any ministers from his district, a renowned Labour Party stronghold.

Abela responded that he had to take some tough decisions and couldn’t give a ministry to each of his MPs, but promised that he himself would contest the second district, just as his predecessor Joseph Muscat had done.

The Prime Minister was elected to Parliament in 2017 from the sixth district, which includes his hometown Qormi, but his wife Lydia Abela hails from Bormla and her sister Alison Zerafa Civelli is the town’s mayor.

After he appointed his Cabinet earlier this week, some constituents of the second district complained that he had overlooked their representatives. Joe Mizzi was removed from Cabinet entirely, while Chris Agius was kept on as a parliamentary secretary and Glenn Bedingfield made party whip. The district’s fourth representative, Joseph Muscat, has said that he will stay on as an MP but that he will take a backseat and not contest the next general election..

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