[WATCH] 'Historic sentence that does justice with electorate' - Simon Busuttil

'Historic sentence that does justice with electorate'

PN leader Simon Busuttil dubbed the constitutional court's decision granting the opposition a further two seats in parliament "a historic decision that does justice with the electorate".

Addressing a press conference at the PN's headquarters, the opposition leader said the Electoral Commission should now follow the court's ruling and kick start the process for the election of two PN candidates to parliament.

"This was a historic sentence where democracy won. The court ruled that the PN suffered discrimination for two years because of a mistake made by the Electoral Commission. Instead of 32 seats, the PN got 30. Justice is now not only being served with the PN, but also with the voters who voted for our candidates. It was the court itself that said that results of the 2013 were not properly reflected in the seats given and it didn't faithfully respect the principle of proportionality," he said.

The  principle of proportionality is based on first count votes, where the quota is drawn based on the total amount of valid votes cast. In the 2013 elections, the Labour Party got 167,533 first count votes while the PN got 132,246 first count votes.

Asked to explain how the principle of proportionality works, at which stage of the vote counting did the mistake occur and how will the nine seat majority - based on the principle of proportionality - be reflected following the court's decision, Busuttil invited the media to read the court's decision.

"The Labour Party's argument has been shot down by the court. This is the same argument raised by the government and the court was clear that the principle of proportionality was not strictly adhered to."

Busuttil said that the PN had operated for the past two years with two seats less in parliament: “We now expect the Electoral Commission to work on getting those two seats in parliament,” he said, adding that the government had the right to appeal, as any other party in a court case.

“But I want people to ask: if the Electoral Commission appeals this decision, whose interests will it be defending? What interest would there be other than retaining a nine-seat majority as opposed to seven? The biggest interest that has to win is that of the people and that their choice is respected.

“Two years have passed. We waited for two years.”

In a reaction, the government reiterated that the number of seats the Opposition had in parliament was proportional to the number of votes the PN obtained during the 2013 election, according to the Constitution.

“The government has all the right to appeal this decision, especially in matters which concern the application of the Constitution.”

“The government would also like to draw the Opposition leader’s attention to the obvious fact that, based on procedural law and the right to fair hearing, all decisions of the First Hall which are appealed are not the final judgement. Therefore, no decision can be taken when a decision is being appealed.”