Charlon Gouder eyeing MEP elections candidature

Former ONE journalist Charlon Gouder is considering running for the 2014 European parliament elections on a Labour ticket, MaltaToday has learnt.

Labour Party insiders told this newspaper that Gouder would "probably" be on the party's final list of candidates.

Contacted by MaltaToday, Gouder neither confirmed nor denied that he would be submitting his nomination to the party's executive.

"I am currently considering all options," he said, when asked what would make him an ideal candidate.

Gouder, 31, currently serves as the private secretary to parliamentary secretary for culture José Herrera and presents Breakfast news on ONE, the PL's media.

If his candidature will be approved, the Labour Party would have two former journalists vying for the Brussels post as TX presenter Miriam Dalli's candidature has long been approved.

Gouder was very much known for his persistent and relentless hounding of Nationalist figures. But in an interview with MaltaToday in 2007, Gouder had admitted it had never been his intention to pursue a journalistic career.

A former trombonist with the Msida band club and the National Orchestra, Gouder aspired to study music and follow in the footsteps of his grandfathers and uncles.

"It was never my intention to end up in journalism, especially political journalism. I always saw myself working in music. My family is a family of musicians, all my uncles are musicians, so music was always an important part of my life."

But when he was studying music at the Junior College, Gouder and his classmates had been taught the wrong syllabus, and the blunder was only discovered two weeks before the A-level exam.

Gouder still passed, but inevitably the grade was nowhere near what he wanted. The incident had put him off music but paved the way for a life in politics.