Simon Busuttil

Vote-counting is well under way in Naxxar in three casual elections being held to fill seats vacated by Simon Busuttil, Louis Grech and Edward Scicluna.

The three MEPs resigned upon their election to the Maltese parliament on March 9.

Eleven candidates have submitted their nomination for the three seats, which will be held for a year until the European Parliament elections in May next year.

Among them is Glenn Bedingfield, who was in the same situation when he successfully contested the casual election to take the European Parliament seat vacated by Joseph Muscat after his co-option to the Maltese parliament. Mr Bedingfield had subsequently not been re-elected.

Louis Grech

The process this morning started at 8.15 a.m. It involves reopening the ballot papers of the three MEPs and allocating the votes according to the second preferences expressed by voters.

The process started with the sorting of votes of Dr Busuttil and Prof Scicluna.

Labour candidate Marlene Mizzi took a substantial lead in the casual election for the latter.

Some of the candidates turned up at Naxxar counting hall to watch proceedings from behind the perspex. So too did local representatives of the European Parliament and the European Commission.

The visitors also included Dr Busuttil and Mario de Marco, both PN leadership contenders.

Dr de Marco said that next May's European Parliament election would be the first big test for the Nationalist Party after the massive defeatin March, and its main aim must be the election of a third PN candidate. 

The party, he said,  should start the process of choosing its candidates as early as possible  so that they could start working for this result.

He said MEPs had a tough job representing a small country with just six seats in the European Parliament so they had to have the ability to integrate and form  allies with other MEPs representing larger countries.

Dr de Marco spoke about the need for European Parliamentarians, MPs in the local Parliament, their constituencies and the party working in synergy in the national interest. He said the PN should strengthen its information office to help its parliamentarians in their work.

Edward Scicluna

The candidates are the following:

Election to fill seat vacated by Simon Busuttil: Rudolph Cini, Alan Deidun, Vince Farrugia, Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas.

Election to fill seats vacated by Louis Grech and Edward Scicluna: Claudette Abela Baldacchino, Glenn Bedingfield, Steve Borg, Maria Camilleri, Sharon Ellul Bonici, Marlene Mizzi and Christian Joseph Zammit.