Frank Psaila and Alessia Psaila Zammit have become the latest to resign from the Nationalist Party, The Malta Independent can confirm.

Psaila, who for many years presented current affairs programmes and was the third-most popular candidate in the 2019 MEP elections, resigned his post on the party’s executive while his wife Psaila Zammit resigned from the party and from the Siggiewi local council, where she served as minority leader.

Psaila was also the government's communications coordinator under the Gonzi administration.

Psaila Zammit contested the 2022 general election for the PN, but was not elected having only garnered 516 first count votes in the sixth district, and 326 first count votes in the seventh district.

Contacted by The Malta Independent, Psaila confirmed that both he and his wife had resigned from the party last week.

He also said that he had withdrawn his MEP candidature for the next European Parliament elections.

“Last week, we informed the party leadership of our resignations stating that the reason for doing is to focus on our legal profession, business activities, impartial participation in the media and other public roles,” Psaila said before thanking those who had supported him and his wife along the way.

A by-election will take place in Siggiewi to fill the local council seat vacated by Psaila Zammit.

The news was first revealed by Labour Party media house ONE News on Monday morning.

It is the latest resignation from the PN as the fallout from its dismal electoral result three weeks ago continues to be felt.

Jason Azzopardi resigned from the party after he failed to be elected, even via a casual election, while another candidate and local councillor Doris Borg resigned from the party but kept her Xghajra local council seat, leaving the party without representation in the village.

Borg alleged that she had been discriminated against by the party throughout the general election campaign, stating that more media coverage had been given to the other female candidate on her district – ostensibly a reference to Bernice Bonello, who made it to Parliament through the gender quota mechanism – over her.

Another local councillor – Ivan Bartolo – resigned from the party only days after the election after he too failed to be elected, stating that he did not recognise the party he loved anymore.