Labour to co-opt fifth MP after no contest in casual election to replace Silvio Grixti

The Labour Party will need to co-opt someone to fill the parliamentary seat vacated by Silvio Grixti after no one submitted their nomination to contest the casual election.

The Electoral Commission said that none of the eligible candidates to contest the casual election on the Third District had filed their nomination by Friday noon. Nominations opened on Monday and closed today.

The casual election was necessary after Grixti resigned from parliament over a police investigation involving fraudulent medical certificates and documents.

With no casual election taking place, the vacant seat will now have to be filled in by co-option with news reports earlier this week suggesting that the Prime Minister would be choosing from PL candidates Andy Ellul, Rebecca Buttigieg and Romilda Zarb. 

This will be the fifth Labour MP to make it into the House by co-option.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli and MPs Oliver Scicluna and Jonathan Attard were all co-opted to parliament after the resignations of Joseph Muscat, Etienne Grech, Gavin Gulia (who resigned soon after winning the casual election to replace Edward Scicluna) and Manuel Mallia respectively.

All co-options happened in the past two years, in what many believe is Robert Abela’s way of crafting a parliamentary group of his liking.

But co-options have been the order of the day in the current legislature, which also saw two Opposition leaders – Adrian Delia and Bernard Grech – making it to parliament through co-option.