News • 27 April 2003

Former parliamentary secretary’s parliamentary fate sealed

Kurt Sansone

The parliamentary fate of Labour candidate Prof. Louis Buhagiar was sealed on Wednesday during the Labour Party meeting of the national executive when it was decided that George Vella should relinquish his seat on the third district instead of the fifth.

The former parliamentary secretary won’t make it to parliament this time round. Having been elected on two districts, the third and fifth, Vella had the choice to relinquish either one. Buhagiar had a good chance of getting elected in the by-election on the fifth district but the decision taken by a secret vote in the national executive shut the Zurrieq professor out of parliament.

A medical professor, Buhagiar’s name surfaced prominently last year in connection to allegations of overcharging made by foreign medical insurance companies and tourists, who required medical care while on visit. Buhagiar has started libel proceedings against MaltaToday on the issue.

It is unclear whether the allegations had any bearing on the decision taken by the national executive but Buhagiar was also involved in two particular incidents, which did not put him in good light with the Labour leadership.

During the parliamentary debate on the impeachment of Judge Depasquale, Buhagiar was the only Labour MP to vote in favour of the government’s motion to impeach the judge.

Furthermore, prior to the referendum, Buhagiar wrote in The Times expressing his views that if the referendum was won by the ‘yes’ vote it would do the Labour Party good to recognise the result.

It is not clear whether the decision of the MLP executive was in any way related to any one of the above mentioned issues or whether there could have been other reasons for preferring to chose a different district to relinquish a parliamentary seat.