WATCH: Joseph Muscat Presents This Year’s Labour Party Local Council Candidates… All 398 Of Them
Standing nearly 400 people strong and taking over the Upper Barrakka in Valletta, the Labour Party today announced its candidates for the upcoming local council elections. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat held a press conference earlier this morning where he presented all 398 candidates.
Muscat shared some statistics about the party’s candidates
Expressing that diversity was a major concern for them, and that these candidates come from ‘all walks of life’. Up 15% from last year’s elections, 24% of the Labour Party’s council candidates are women. Dr Muscat claimed that achieving gender parity in this respect was still some time away, and that they are not yet at the 50/50 balance they hope to achieve.
He also said that over one third of the candidates were under the age of 35, covering diversity from an age aspect too, with a variety ranging form under 18 to pensioner age.
This is the largest group to ever be presented by a single party.
And Muscat said that they made sure to cover a good geographical spread, with an increase in the number of candidates fielded from Gozo. He again chided the Nationalist Party of trying to deprive voters in a total of 23 separate localities by fielding fewer candidates than they currently hold seats.
As its stands, the Nationalist Party has presented 296 candidates
This means they have roughly 100 fewer candidates than labour. It also means that at least 694 individuals from the Labour and Nationalist parties will be contesting the local council elections.
Local elections in all 68 towns and villages across Malta and Gozo will be held on the same day the European Parliament elections; the 25th of May.