Election History Bites | Mabel, Marlene and Sandra

Only three women since 1921 have managed to become leaders of political parties—all three being minor parties.

Mabel Strickland was the first woman leader, having founded and led the Progressive Constitutional Party (PCP) through five general elections between 1953 and 1971. During this period, the PCP only elected one MP—Mabel Strickland on the 7th District—in the 1962 election. The PCP ceased to exist after 1971 and with it ended Strickland’s political career. She died in November 1988 at the age of 89.

The second woman to lead a political party was Marlene Farrugia. She was elected to parliament on the Labour Party ticket in 2013 but resigned from the party three years later. Farrugia retained her parliamentary seat as an independent. She went on to found and lead the Democratic Party (PD) that contested the 2017 election as part of an unorthodox arrangement with the Nationalist Party (PN).

PD candidates were fielded as part of the PN list on the ballot sheet but were identified by the moniker ‘Tal-Oranġjo’ (Of the Orange), representing the party’s official colour. Farrugia was elected to parliament in this manner, as did her partner Godfrey Farrugia, thus giving the PD two seats.

After the election, Marlene Farrugia resigned as leader of PD and in 2019 resigned from the party but stayed on as an MP until the end of legislature in 2022. She did not contest the 2022 election thus ending her political career.

The third woman to lead a political party is Sandra Gauci, the current chairperson of ADPD. Gauci was elected chairperson in May 2023 with her first electoral test coming a year later in the 2024 European and local council elections. Gauci stood as a candidate in the European election but was not elected, however, her bid to become a local councillor in St Paul’s Bay was successful.

In the European election ADPD fielded four candidates, collectively garnering 3,109 votes on the first count, of which 2,162 were attributable to Gauci. Meanwhile, in the St Paul’s Bay election, Gauci obtained 6.7% of the vote and was elected on the third count. She remains a councillor in her locality.

The 2026 general election is Gauci’s first as leader of ADPD.

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