Muscat to announce early June election, Illum reports

The prime minister is expected to dissolve parliament when it next meets on Tuesday and call a snap June election to be held on 3, 10 or 17 June, according to MaltaToday’s sister Maltese newspaper Illum.

The paper had already revealed last week that the Labour Party was gearing up for an election and getting its candidates ready, after internal surveys showed the party enjoyed a 17,000 majority over the Nationalist Party, even after allegations by blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia against prime minister Joseph Muscat’s wife, Michelle, first surfaced.

It was this ‘comfortable advantage’ that convinced Muscat to hold an early election, Illum reports.

Its editor, Albert Gauci Cunningham, said the paper’s sources indicated that Muscat would be building his election campaign around the country’s economic success.

Muscat, worried that the current uncertainty could cause irreparable harm to the country – particularly in the finance and property sectors – had therefore decided to go to the polls.

Illum says that there were those within the Labour Party itself who were against an early election and would prefer the government present another budget before calling an election.