The Labour Party is presenting its largest ever group of candidates for the local council elections, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Saturday morning.

The PL candidates were officially presented at an event held at the Upper Barrakka Gardens.

It is the biggest amount of candidates ever presented by a local political party since the council elections were first held. In total, the PL has 398 candidates.

Muscat thanked the candidates for offering to serve in all localities in Malta and Gozo.

The candidates, he said, come from all walks of life.

A third are youths and a quarter of all candidates are women. Several of the candidates are persons with a disability, he pointed out.

It was sad, the PM said, that the PN had tried to deny the right to vote to the residents of 23 localities, who would not have been able to vote had the PL not presented more candidates that is needed.

While urging the candidates to work for a good result on 25 May, he said that, from that day onwards the localities come first.

He also said that the PL will be presenting a different electoral manifesto for each locality.