Malta has chosen a new Prime Minister after Joseph Muscat stepped down amid public protests calling for the truth about the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia more than two years ago.

More than half (58 per cent) of the members of Malta’s ruling Labour Party who were eligible to vote elected Robert Abela as the Mediterranean island’s new leader yesterday.

Muscat has left midway through his second term in office amid demands for accountability over the killing of anti-corruption journalist Caruana Galizia in a car bomb attack near her home in October 2017.