Prime Minister Robert Abela has justified the co-option of Randolph Debattista to Parliament a mere three days into his new legislature by saying that the “regeneration” of the PL and of government structures must continue.
Debattista, who is a former Labour Party CEO and the head of its English-language media arm The Journal, was co-opted by the Labour Party on Tuesday night, after its executive decided that Clifton Grima and Michael Falzon should both cede their 9th district seats, having been elected in two districts.
Because only one candidate was left in the district – Rebecca Buttigieg, who will automatically take up one of those two seats – it meant that the remaining seat had to be co-opted.
Had the PL instructed one of Grima or Falzon to drop their 10th district seat instead of their 9th district seat, then there were four other candidates, including former Foreign Affairs Minister Evarist Bartolo, who could have been elected instead.
“This is a question of regeneration. The people gave us a strong mandate, but that does not mean that we should stop regenerating… quite the opposite; it is an indication that the people want this renewal process which has taken place in the past two years to continue,” Abela said when asked whether he thought it was unfair to co-opt somebody who was not an electoral candidate.
He said that the co-option mechanism is recognised in Malta’s electoral process and that it was used correctly, adding that Debattista is a competent individual who has worked both abroad and locally and who can offer a lot to Parliament.
Asked about whether his choice to exclude MPs such as Edward Zammit Lewis and Carmelo Abela from his Cabinet was a message to them owing to their facing serious allegations, Abela said that there were some individuals within the parliamentary group who “cannot give as strong a contribution anymore” and that he had taken into consideration a number of things in his final choice.
Pushed on the matter, he said that the government had “started a new page.”
Abela brushed off suggestions that moving Ian Borg to the Foreign Affairs ministry was something of a demotion, saying that international relations will be an important area to build upon in the coming years.
He also revealed that two more appointments to Cabinet are expected to take place once the casual elections and the gender corrective mechanism are carried out and other MPs are elected to Parliament.
Asked what his priority for the first 100 days in government will be, Abela centred on the PL’s proposed legal amendments to IVF laws, saying that these cannot wait because there are a lot of people who want to be parents but cannot due to the current legislative situation.