Cacopardo fails in casual election bid for St Julian’s council seat vacated by Albert Buttigieg

Carmel Cacopardo’s bid to clinch the St Julian’s local council seat vacated by former mayor Albert Buttigieg proved unsuccessful on Monday.

The ADPD leader only inherited 30 votes from Buttigieg, failing to reach the required quota of 196 to get elected.

In an unorthodox move that is allowed at law, Cacopardo had submitted his nomination to contest the casual election for the seat vacated when Buttigieg was elected to parliament.

Cacopardo had unsuccesfully contested the St Julian’s council election in 2019.

There were no unelected Nationalist Party candidates left on the list to contest for the vacancy.

The law allows any unelected candidate, irrespective of which party they belong to, to contest a casual election.

But on Monday, when Buttigieg’s votes were opened, Cacopardo failed to obtain the necessary casual election quota, having inherited only 30 votes.

This means that the PN now gets to co-opt someone of its choice to the St Julian’s council.

Buttigieg vacated his council seat after being elected to parliament following a casual election on the 10th District to fill the seat vacated by Robert Arrigo who died last month.