Finance Minister to contest eighth electoral district in next general election

The Finance Minister Clyde Caruana will contest the eighth electoral district on the Labour Party tickets in the next general election.

Caruana was elected through a parliamentary co-option following former leader Joseph Muscat’s resignation, after a short stint as Prime Minister Robert Abela’s chief of staff.

Newspaper Illum reported that Caruana will be contesting the eighth and second district.

The eighth electoral district consists of the following localities: Birkirkara, Ħal Balzan, l-Iklin and Ħal Lija.

In the 2017 general election, former MPs Chris Cardona and Edward Scicluna had received a total of 6,700 first count votes from the eighth district.

Former Economy Minister Chris Cardona had received 3,218 first count votes, while former Finance Minister and current Central Bank governor Edward Scicluna received 3,577 first count votes.

Current Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis had managed to get 2,783 votes, and was elected to parliament following a casual election, after Scicluna vacated his seat and retained his seventh district parliamentary seat.

In 2017, 25,982 people within the eighth electoral district were eligible to vote during the general election.

Former leader and current PN MP Adrian Delia had announced in October that he would also be contesting the eighth district for the Nationalist Party come next election.