Emotions ran high and tension rose when a number of votes belonging to her were wrongly allocated to another candidate at the last election, Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg said in court yesterday.

“I thought that once a mistake had been made, it would be corrected,” she said, quickly adding that the opposite had in fact happened and 50 votes were now in a box marked ‘dubious’.

Ms Buttigieg was testifying in the case instituted by the Nationalist Party against the Electoral Commission seeking a court order to get a recount because of the mistake.

This is the second time the issue has been taken to court.

Another request for a recount was turned down by the Constitutional Court on grounds that both Ms Buttigieg and Fredrick Azzo-pardi sat in Parliament after extra seats were awarded to the PN in line with the proportional representation rule. The court argued that, in the circumstances, there was no juridical need to recount votes in the eighth and 13th districts.

The pack of 50 votes belonging to Ms Buttigieg (née Pace) was allocated to PN candidate Michael Axiaq, who was eliminated, opening the way for Labour’s Edward Scicluna to be elected instead.

The PN says, in another blunder, 10 votes belonging to Mr Azzopardi went missing, contributing to Labour’s Justyne Caruana election.

The mistakes, which were not being contested, would not have made a difference because such human errors were taken into account through well-researched mathematical formulae, the Electoral Commission is arguing.

Ms Buttigieg recalled in her testimony that she was following the sorting and counting of votes on the eighth and 12th districts, which she had contested. When she realised it was likely she would be elected on the eighth district, she focused her attention there.

At one point, Dr Axiaq said he would not be elected, adding his votes would evidently be transferred to her and he congratulated her.

When the packs of votes pertaining to Dr Axiaq were opened, Ms Buttigieg said she immediately realised there was a mistake because the counters began shouting that the votes in one pack were not valid.

The process was stopped and the supervisors were called in as tension behind the perspex viewing partition began rising, she said.

The votes marked as Dr Axiaq’s were first-preference votes belonging to her. Ms Buttigieg said Electoral Commission staff told her there had been a mistake and that they would sort things out.

Representatives from both parties arrived and discussions were held in her absence.

She said she was informed that the pack of votes was then placed inside the ‘dubious votes’ box.

The case continues.