Updated | Cuschieri changes his mind, MEP to run for elections again

Joseph Cuschieri MEP submits nomination for European elections

Incumbent Labour MEP Joseph Cuschieri has submitted his candidature for the forthcoming European elections in May, three days after he had announced that he would not contest the election.

Cuschieri said that "Labour and the country had called" on to him to submit his candidature, but the MEP refused to explain what, or who, had encouraged him to change his mind.

On Monday, Cuschieri announced that he would not be submitting his candidature for the forthcoming MEP elections, claiming Labour “wanted him on the losers’ side” after the party had favoured certain candidates in the run-up to the elections.

In sudden turn of events, Cuschieri has now announced that he would in fact, be contesting the May elections on the Labour ticket.

"The [Labour] party requests my candidature while the country urged me to run for the election. The interests of the party are my foremost importance," he said.

Cuschieri said that he had been in constant contact with the Prime Minister, whom he previously had complained to about the unfair attention given to other candidates. "At this time we must now look forward and work for a better party. Further comments would be made at a later stage."

Cushieri was also quick to point out that the Labour Party was not prohibiting him from explaining his stand, insisting that Labour "unlike the PN did to Franco Debono, was not prohibited me from giving further explanation."

Speaking on Xejk TV’s Frux on Monday, Cuschieri claimed that Labour was not treating his potential candidature on the same footing as that of other candidates, suggesting that the party did not want him to be a successful candidate. “I never participated in an election where the result is already fixed. In these circumstances, there was no fairness in the European Parliament election. That’s why I will not contest the European Parliament elections.”

Cushieri had also said that other candidates – although he did not refer to them by name – had been given extensive media coverage on the Labour Party media organs, while conversely, he was given “due attention by the campaign during the build-up to the MEP elections.”

“There are candidates who abused of the party machine. These candidates took advantage of the situation. I feel disappointed since each and every candidate had to be given the same treatment and no one ought to be privileged or disadvantaged,” he said.

He said that although he had spoken to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in recent months about this perceived unfairness, “nothing had changed”.

“There are candidates who abused of the party machine. These candidates took advantage of the situation. I feel disappointed since each and every candidate had to be given the same treatment and no one ought to be privileged or disadvantaged,” Cuschieri said during the programme.