Casual elections roundup: Seven new faces make it to parliament

Seven new faces were this week added to the list of MPs who will represent the nation in the 13th parliament since independence

A total of 12 seats were up for grabs in the elections: seven on Labour’s side and five on the PN’s
A total of 12 seats were up for grabs in the elections: seven on Labour’s side and five on the PN’s

Seven new faces were this week added to the list of MPs who will represent the nation in the 13th parliament since independence. Casual elections were held on Tuesday and Wednesday to determine which candidates would take up seats given up by candidates elected on two districts. 

Glenn Bedingdield, Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Clayton Bartolo, and Rosianne Cutajar were elected for the first time for the Labour Party, while Karol Aquilina, David Stellini and Ivan Bartolo were elected for the PN.

A total of 12 seats were up for grabs in the elections: seven on Labour’s side and five on the PN’s.

For Labour, causal elections were held on the second district, where Helena Dalli gave up her seat, as well as the fourth (Chris Fearne), fifth (Joseph Muscat), sixth (Silvio Schembri), eighth (Edward Scicluna), ninth (Michael Falzon) and the 12th (Evarist Bartolo).  

On the PN’s side, elections were held on the seventh district, where Beppe Fenech Adami gave up his seat, the 10th district, which was vacated by Robert Arrigo, the 11th where two seats were made available by David Agius and Simon Busuttil, and on the 13th district, to replace Marthese Portelli.  

District 2 

OPM communications aide and blogger Glenn Bedingfield was elected to parliament on the second district, beating Stefan Buontempo and Mark Causon after the first count.   

Bedingfield inherited 2,216 of Helena Dalli’s votes, with Buontempo claiming 1,230 and Causon 457.

Glenn Bedingfield
Glenn Bedingfield

Had the Labour Party executive decided that Dalli was to give up her seat on the third rather than the second, eight of the Labour Party’s unelected candidates on the third district would have stood a chance of being elected. The decision for her to vacate her seat on the second favoured Bedingfield since he and Causon were the only two unelected candidates on the district. 

District 4

Chris Fearne’s fourth district seat was contested by six candidates, all of whom appeared to have a chance. 

Etienne Grech was in the lead after the first count, collecting 1,060 votes. He was followed by Andy Ellul with 938, Stefan Buontempo (792), and Joe Cilia (563). 

Matters were complicated following Cilia’s elimination in the third round, as the distribution of his votes led to a tie and a close showdown between Buontempo and Ellul. 

According to electoral law, where two candidates have an equal number of votes, the one with the most first count votes in the casual election is given preference, which in this case would have meant the elimination of Buontempo. 

This was not necessary because, as per normal procedure where a count comes down to a small number of votes, a recount was ordered by the commission. 

Luckily for Buontempo – who was not present at the counting hall, despite contesting the causal elections on two districts – the end of the recount left him with an advantage of three votes over Ellul. 

Ellul opted for a second recount, which brought Buontempo’s advantage down to one vote, with Ellul asking for yet another recount which finally confirmed the result. Ellul’s votes were distributed equally between Buontempo and Grech, resulting in the latter being elected to Parliament. 

District 5

The election on the fifth district was contested by 10 candidates, all vying for the seat vacated by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who was elected on the district with 12,886 first-count votes. 

Muscat was elected together with newcomer Julia Farrugia Portelli and Owen Bonnici, with former Labour Party president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi narrowly missing out, falling some 300 votes short of the quota. 

In the casual election, Zrinzo Azzopardi was immediately in the lead, winning 1,520 votes in the first count with former MP Luciano Busuttil collecting the second largest number of votes with 671 votes. Zrinzo Azzopardi went on to win the seat with relative ease. 

District 6

Qormi mayor Rosianne Cutajar and Malta Tourism Authority chairman Gavin Gulia were the only two unelected Labour party candidates on the district, and despite Cutajar having clearly outperformed Gulia in the general election, both submitted their nomination to contest the seat. 

Rosianne Cutajar
Rosianne Cutajar

Cutajar was elected with 2,884 votes after the first count, with Gulia collecting 877 votes. 

District 7

Former Labour whip and Partit Demokratiku candidate Godfrey Farrugia, who ran on the PN ticket, was elected to parliament in the casual election for the seat ceded by Beppe Fenech Adami. 

Sam Abela appeared to be in the lead following the first count, however it was discovered that the votes distributed did not tally by some 500 votes with the number of votes collected by Fenech Adami. 

It transpired that the ‘missing votes’ had been placed in another candidate’s pile, and were the votes inherited by Fenech Adami from Farrugia. 

Godfrey Farrugia
Godfrey Farrugia

Although the PD candidate ran on the PN ticket, it appeared that many PN officials at the counting hall were hopeful that the seat would go to a PN candidate, rather than Farrugia.

The ‘missing’ votes however gave Farrugia a huge boost, putting him in the lead with a comfortable 400-vote cushion. Despite being a PD candidate, Farrugia continued to gain votes from eliminated PN candidates, and he finally beat Abela by 239 votes. 

District 8

The casual election for finance minister Edward Scicluna’s seat was easily won by former minister Edward Zammit Lewis, who many expected to make it back to parliament. 

While he initially did not make the cut, having been beaten by Scicluna and Chris Cardona, Zammit Lewis was elected on the first count of the casual election, taking 2,477 of Scicluna’s votes, significantly more than the three competing candidates combined. 

In 2013, Zammit Lewis was elected on the eighth district, in a result which saw Labour winning an additional seat compared to its usual two seats on the district. The fact that Labour was not able to hold on to this third seat in the district did not bode well for Zammit Lewis, who also remained unelected on the ninth district.

District 9 

Another former minister who needed a casual election to return to parliament was Manuel Mallia. Mallia made headlines in 2014 while minister for Home Affairs, when his driver was involved in a shooting in the Regional Road tunnel. 

Mallia was up against Gzira mayor Conrad Borg Manche and Nikita Zammit Alamango for the seat vacated by Michael Falzon. He won the casual election comfortably by a margin of over 1,000 votes. 

District 10

The PN casual elections were held on Wednesday, when 10 candidates stood a chance of being elected on the 10th district, after the PN’s executive council decided that Robert Arrigo was to give up his seat on the 10th. Arrigo was also elected on the ninth. 

Candidates Graziella Attard Previ and Nick Refalo were thought to be best placed to win a seat at the start of the day, with former minister George Pullicino also a favourite for re-election. 

In fact, Pullicino was in the lead following the first count, maintaining his lead throughout the day. On the sixth count, Pullicino had 1,070 votes, followed closely by Attard Previ, with 912, and Refalo (709), Karol Aquilina (538) and Alan Abela Wadge (531).

Aquilina’s seven-vote advantage over Abela Wadge meant that the latter was eliminated first which led to Aquilina gaining 431 out of Abela Wadge’s 531 votes, catapulting Aquilina into second place, 126 votes behind Pullicino. 

Aquilina continued to gain more votes with each passing round than Pullicino and ended up winning 2,104 votes, to Pullicino’s 1,633. 

District 11

Two seats were available on the 11th district, after Opposition leader Simon Busuttil and PN whip David Agius both vacated their seat.

Busuttil’s votes were distributed first, a majority of which went to former Mosta mayor Ivan Bartolo, who was elected with 2,317 votes after five counts. Bartolo won the largest number of votes following each count, and never looked likely to lose his lead over Alex Perici Calascione, who ended the day with 1,490 votes. 

Perici Calascione also placed second in the race for Agius’ seat, losing to Maria Deguara after three counts. Deguara collected 2,302 votes, while Perici Calascione had 1,519.

District 12 

Joseph Matthew Attard, Clayton Bartolo, Alfred Grima and former parliamentary secretary Deborah Schembri contested the 12th district. 

At the end of the first round, Schembri enjoyed a lead of 492 votes over Bartolo, however 74% of Grima and Attard’s votes went to Bartolo following their elimination. Bartolo was elected to parliament, beating Schembri by a slim 15-vote majority.

District 13

The PN seat up for grabs in the 13th district, which is made up of Gozo, was won by EPP press adviser David Stellini, who will be taking the seat vacated by Marthese Portelli. 

Seven candidates contested the district which was decided after five counts. Stellini led from the start, and ultimately collected 1,626 votes. The closest contenders were Kevin Cutajar with 1,431 votes and Ryan Mercieca with 1,151 votes.

How do casual elections work?

When a candidate decides to resign his seat in parliament, the party can elect another candidate who ran on the same district and was not elected
When a candidate decides to resign his seat in parliament, the party can elect another candidate who ran on the same district and was not elected

When a candidate decides to resign his seat in parliament, the party can elect another candidate who ran on the same district and was not elected. The electorate does not vote again, candidates are elected by re-opening the votes of the general election in the district.

Once candidates nominate themselves for the casual election, counting agents take all of the votes won by the resigning candidate, and dividing among those contesting the casual election based on the preference of the voters. 

With all candidates starting from a zero-vote count, a large number of first time votes in the general election does not give the candidate an advantage in the general election, although it is indicative of the candidate’s popularity among constituents. 

In addition to the popularity of a candidate, the result of a casual election is also dependent on agreements made between candidates who might have directed constituents to give their first preference vote to them and their second to a specific candidate. 

Another significant factor is a candidate’s surname, which is listed alphabetically. In many cases voters will give their preference to a particular candidate, before proceeding to vote for all of a party’s remaining candidates, starting from the top. This gives candidates at the top of the list an advantage over those at the bottom.