[4] On 21 October 2016, Farrugia was elected the first leader of the PD at a general meeting to confirm the party executive.

[7] Shortly after the election, Marlene Farrugia resigned as leader of PD, claiming the party needed to form an identity of its own.

[8] In the ensuing leadership challenge, Anthony Buttigieg became the leader of PD, until standing down in late 2018 to run as an MEP candidate for the party.

[13] The PD website cited a manifesto covering a variety of domains, focussing prominently on democratic principles and good governance.

[19] Marlene Farrugia formally resigned from the Leadership of the Partit Demokratiku on 21 August 2017, as part of the process of giving the party an identity distinct from herself.

They announced the approval of 3 European parliamentary election candidates, Martin Cauchi Inglott, a senior retired Armed Forces of Malta officer and the current secretary general of the party, and Anthony Buttigieg, the former leader of the party, and Cami Appelgren, an environmental activist and the leader of the environmental organization Malta Clean Up.

PD announced the approval of 7 local council election candidates: Timothy Alden for Sliema, Raymond Azzopardi for St. Julian's, Mark Zerafa for Birkirkara, Karen Vella Freeman for St. Paul's Bay, Charles Polidano for Qrendi, Michael Bonett for Valletta, and Manuel Farrugia for Tarxien.