Emma Portelli Bonnici to contest casual election for Robert Arrigo’s seat

Lawyer and former MŻPN secretary-general Emma Portelli Bonnici has submitted her nomination in the casual election for Robert Arrigo’s vacant seat. 

She will be up against St Julian’s mayor Albert Buttigieg, both of whom contested the March general election. 

In a Facebook post, Portelli Bonnici said she submitted her nomination out of respect to the 10th district constituency and out of respect for the democratic process.

“This is what is necessary in a democratic country that recognises the importance of a seat in parliament and respects the electoral process that it is constitutionally bound to uphold.”

The 10th district seat was left vacant after the death of long-serving MP Robert Arrigo. The casual election for his seat will take place on 28 October.

The deadline for candidates to submit their nomination is Wednesday 26 October at noon.

Apart from Buttigieg and Portelli Bonnici, Karl Gouder is also eligible to contest the casual election. He hasn’t submitted a nomination yet. 

The nominations put an end to speculation that the PN was considering co-opting deputy leader Alex Perici Calascione. 

Portelli Bonnici was one of the Nationalist Party’s more liberal candidates from the last election. She’s a self-declared pro-choice advocate, and was at the forefront of party policy.

In 2021, she had been tasked with overseeing the outreach process in the party aimed at ensuring the implementation of recommendations from the public inquiry into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. 

Her liberal views on abortion have been met with contention among the more conservative factions of the Nationalist Party. 

Last year, a former PN candidate had threatened to file an official complaint to the party’s disciplinary committee, against Portelli Bonnici and the PN’s former head of political research Martina Caruana, for espousing pro-choice views on sexual health and reproductive rights.

Even PN leader Bernard Grech has made categorical statements in the past against party representatives in favour of abortion. 

He had committed himself to a categorical anti-abortion stance by saying that he would not tolerate anyone representing the party to be in favour of abortion.