Oliver Scicluna will be co-opted to Parliament, replacing Gavin Gulia after his minute or so long return to Parliament earlier this week.

This was confirmed by both Prime Minister Robert Abela and the Labour Party’s Deputy Leader Daniel Micallef on Friday.

It will be Scicluna's first foray into party politics after working within the disability sector for a number of years.  In 2014 he was appointed chairman of the National Commission for Persons with a Disability and two years later he was made Malta’s first Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability – a role he continues to fulfil to this day. 

Micallef took to social media to say that he would be supporting the nomination of Scicluna to be co-opted to Parliament.

He said that Scicluna is a person with various capabilities, not just in the disability sector, and will certainly be a great contributor at a parliamentary level to the government.

His co-option confirms reports which first emerged on Wednesday.

The PL issued a statement later in the day, confirming that Scicluna will represent the PL in Parliament. The statement read that it was the PM who put Scicluna’s name forward before the PL Parliamentary Group, where the co-option was discussed. The statement also read that the PL’s Executive Committee also discussed the proposal, and Scicluna was unanimously approved.

Scicluna will take up the seat vacated by Gavin Gulia earlier this week, who resigned only a minute or so after being sworn in as a member of parliament again.  He had just won a casual election which was required to fill the vacant seat left by former Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, who has now become the governor of the Central Bank.

PL insiders told The Malta Independent that Gulia had only contested the casual election after pressure from the Prime Minister, as he did not want to see neither Charles Azzopardi – a former Rabat mayor barred from contesting under the PL’s banner in 2019 and since a PN lifetime member – or Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando would be elected.

Azzopardi has since reacted that what happened in Parliament made it clear that democracy is now dead in the country, while Pullicino Orlando – conversely – told this newsroom that he saw no reason why he should feel cheated by the events.