PL MEP delegation head, Joseph Cuschieri, who will be contesting the EP elections once again, did not give a specific reason for not having featured in Friday’s Xarabank MEP debate other than “it was a choice I made” but did say that he does not agree with the formation of the Xarabank debate.

He also said that candidates should be given equal time to air their views, since failing to do this puts those allocated less time at a disadvantage.

“All the candidates should be treated equally,” he emphasised.

He was replying to questions made by this newspaper tied to the fact that he was “missing in action” during the debate.

Mr Cuschieri also pointed out that political parties should be represented by the secretary-generals and not the candidates, for instance, and the candidates allocated the same amount of time to air their views, meaning that the secretary-generals would be the main speakers of the debate.

He also suggested that the party in government could also opt to send the Minister responsible for European Affairs, in this case Louis Grech, and the Opposition a main spokesman for European Affairs, along with the candidates.

During Friday’s debate, PL candidates Miriam Dalli and Charlon Gouder, who both worked for the PL’s broadcasting station One in the past, were allocated the most time to air their views, around 18 minutes each. PN MEP candidates David Casa and Roberta Metsola, and AD chairman Arnold Cassola, were given the same amount of time as the PL candidates, but the rest of the PL and PN candidates were only allocated one minute each.

Mr Cuschieri, who announced in April that he would not be contesting the upcoming EP election because the “PL has already decided which candidates it wants elected” and he had been “put with the losers”, had a change of heart a day or two later and decided to contest.

This is the eighth time he will be contesting an election. He has contested seven previously and been elected in six.

He said that all the candidates should be receive the same treatment and that no one should be put at an advantage or disadvantage, adding that the elections he contested up to now had always been fair.

Meanwhile, the recorded views of the three minority parties, those of Alleanza Bidla, Imperium Ewropa and Partit tal Ajkla, were broadcast well after midnight.