Counting of votes in the elections for the Labour Party's two deputy leaders went on late into the night yesterday.

In all, 915 party delegates were entitled to vote at the extraordinary general conference held at party headquarters in Hamrun, but the 83 Gozitan delegates were not able to make the crossing due to rough seas.

They voted instead at the MLP's Victoria centre and their ballot box was brought over to Malta later. All ballot boxes were only opened after the Gozo box arrived, at about 10.45 p.m, and this delayed the start of the counting process by about half an hour.

Voting had started at 7.15 p.m. following an explanation of the process by chief electoral commissioner Joe Falzon.

860 delegates cast their votes in the election for deputy leader for party affairs, and 861 in that for deputy leader for parliamentary affairs.

Michael Falzon, Evarist Bartolo, Manwel Cuschieri, Joe Debono Grech and Alfred Mifsud were candidates for party affairs deputy leader, and Charles Mangion, Leo Brincat, Joe Brincat and Jose Herrera for the parliamentary affairs post.

To win the election, a candidate must obtain at least 50 per cent plus one of the votes cast. If this does not happen, the two candidates polling most votes go through to a second round, which would take place this evening.