Eleven candidates have thrown their name into the hat to take up Malta’s three vacated seats at the European Parliament until formal elections are held in June 2014.

Casual elections will be held to fill seats vacated by EU Affairs Minister Louis Grech, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna and Nationalist Party deputy leader Simon Busuttil who all made it to the Maltese Parliament and have since resigned as MEPs.

Those contesting the casual election on behalf of Labour are: former journalists Claudette Abela Baldacchino and Glenn Bedingfield, librarian Steve Borg, former election candidate Maria Camilleri, eurosceptic Sharon Ellul Bonici, businesswoman Marlene Mizzi and lawyer Christian Zammit.

The four PN candidates vying to replace Dr Busuttil are former nurses’ union president Rudolph Cini, environmentalist Alan Deidun, GRTU boss Vince Farrugia and European law specialist Roberta Tedesco Triccas.

Based on first-count votes, Ms Mizzi is the frontrunner in the contest, having obtained 17,724, followed by Ms Abela Baldacchino with 12,309.

Ms Ellul Bonici obtained 6,051 first-count votes, Mr Bedingfield 4,982, Dr Zammit 4,062, Ms Camilleri 2,031 and Mr Borg a total of 1,187 votes.

On the PN side, the frontrunner is Dr Tedesco Triccas who had obtained 5,880 first-count votes followed by Mr Farrugia with 4,056, Dr Deidun with 3,239 and Mr Cini with 1,761.

Although first-count votes are a strong indication, surprises are not uncommon. The casual election, which is taking place at the counting hall at 8am tomorrow, is decided on who gets most next-preference votes from the pack of votes obtained by the candidates vacating the seat.