The Nationalist Party and Labour Party both approved a candidate each for the upcoming European elections on Friday afternoon.

The Labour Party approved Thomas Bajada (left) as a candidate, while the Nationalist Party approved Lee Bugeja Bartolo (right) as a candidate.

In a statement, the PL described Bajada as a young professional dedicated to the fisheries sector, international governance in oceans, EU and international law, and the promotion of Malta’s cultural heritage.

Bajada, who is 29 years old and is Gozitan, currently works with the government as a Technical Attache in the fisheries sector within Malta’s Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels.

He also served as the political coordinator within the Parliamentary Secretariat for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Animal Rights in the past, and is involved in the Leone Philharmonic Society and the Aurora Opera House in Gozo.

In their own statement meanwhile, the PN said that Lee Bugeja Bartolo had joined its ballot sheet for the June elections.

Bugeja Bartolo, 33, is an aerospace engineer by profession, and studied in Malta and the UK before working in Australia on Boeing military aircraft.

Bugeja Bartolo was an electoral candidate for the Democratic Party back in 2017, when PD contested under the PN’s ticket as part of a coalition against the Labour Party.

These approvals mean that the Labour Party now has a field of nine candidates while the Nationalist Party has a field of eight candidates.