[WATCH] Court rules PN should have two more parliamentary seats, government, PL to appeal

PL to appeal court decision

Madame Justice Lorraine Schembri Orland presiding the FIrst Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction has upheld the PN's arguments in its case contesting the result of the last election and as a result, the opposition is to be given two additional seats.

However, government has said that it disagrees with the court's decision because of "Constitutional implications" and will be filing an appeal. In comments to the press, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said "we will appeal as is our right and duty."

Echoing government's stance, Labour said it disagrees with the decision taken and will be appealing it. The PN had filed the case against government, Labour and two Labour MPs.

After a struggle of 3 long years, justice has prevailed. With 2 more seats we can give people an even stronger voice in Parliament. @PNmalta

— Simon Busuttil (@SimonBusuttil) May 26, 2016

Labour said that the PN leader should wait for the appeal before raising his supporters' expectations. Noting that the 2013 election was held  under a Nationalist government, Labour said that it is ridiculous to accuse it for being responsible for the design of a wrong result.

The PN had filed the case requesting it be given an additional two seats in parliament, which it had not been given due to a vote-counting mistake, arguing that as a result Claudette Buttigieg had been deprived of her right to be elected by quota.

The court held that the previous result gave an incorrect interpretation of the will of the electorate and should have given 38 seats to the PL and 31 to the PN. This constituted a breach of the PN's rights under Article 3 of the 1st Protocol to the European Convention, as incorporated in Chapter 319 of the laws of Malta. The court ordered the Electoral Commissioner to correct the error and declare two more PN candidates to have been elected within a month.

It also found that Claudette Buttigieg was had been deprived of her right to be elected by quota, but in view of the fact that Buttigieg was elected by by-election, no remedy was given.

PN expects reforms to vote counting process

"The Constitution is now not worth a dirty penny" Former PL deputy leader Toni Abela

In his submissions over the past months, former PN general secretary and lawyer Paul Borg Olivier had argued that this case was about democracy. 

The PN has argued that the electoral commission should have restarted all counts to correct the mistake, in accordance with the English wording of the law, which differs from the Maltese version. The party referred to the decision made by the commission which opted for this model when a mistake was made in the 1996 local council elections.

But the Labour Party, represented by lawyers Toni Abela and Paul Lia, had insisted that, in cases like this one, redress had to be sought in the Constitutional Court within three days. It insisted that it was not up to the courts to decide on such matters, while pointing out that that these mistakes did not alter the overall result of the people’s wish of political governance.

In an immediate reaction to the 146 page judgment, Abela was scathing in his criticism. Election results should respect the will of the people, not the will of the legislator, he said, going on to say that the sentence has changed the face of the constitution more than all the previous amendments put together. He said he will be consulting with the Prime Minister on whether or not to file an appeal.

The court should have put measures in place to avoid a repeat performance, he said, but had instead chosen to deal with proportionality.

“The Constitution has been torn to shreds,” said Abela, describing the decision as setting a dangerous precedent whereby anyone could now challenge the result of an election at any time. “Now no legislature can be assured of a full tenure.”

“The Constitution is now not worth a dirty penny,” said Abela. 

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil welcomed the decision, acknowledging the three-year struggle.