Last updated 6.04 am Wednesday -

Labour's Marlene Mizzi has been re-elected to the European Parliamnt, taking the fifth seat as the battle for the sixth goes to the wire.

Ms Mizzi was greeted with cheering and applause at the Naxxar counting hall as she inherited enough votes from Joseph Cuschieri to cement her return, the only Labour MEP to be re-elected.

She said she looked forward to continuing to work in Malta's interests.

The vote-counting process is in the concluding stages, with the final count now under way.

Therese Comodini Cacchia is the last remaining candidate for the PN, with former minister Francis Zammit Dimech having been eliminated.

She is in a race with Labour's Clint Camilleri for the sixth and last seat.

Labour's Joseph Cuschieri was eliminated at 4.35am

The destination of the last seat will be determined by the distribution of  his preference votes.

Mr Camilleri currently has 23,273 votes while Dr Comodini Cachia has 29,481, meaning that Mr Camilleri neads to inherit some 6,300 votes from Mr Cuschieri's 16,613 votes to get elected and give Labour its fourth seat.

DAVID CASA RE-ELECTED

Earlier in the night, Nationalist MEP David Casa was re-elected on the 25th count following the elimination of Ray Bugeja.

Mr Casa is the only candidate to have been elected in all three EP elections held in Malta so far.

His election gave renewed hopes to the PN that they could win a third seat.

The transfer of votes following the elimination of Nationalist candidate Ray Bugeja saw Therese Comodini Cachia moving ahead of Francis Zammit Dimech with 15,502 votes, 100 votes more than the former minister. 

Observers said there was a possibility that Dr Comodini Cachia could pip Labour's Clint Camilleri for the final seat but much would depend on the distribution of votes after Joseph Cuschieri was eliminated. That stage would also see Labour's Marlene Mizzi winning the fifth seat - after Alfred Sant (PL) Roberta Metsola (PN) Miriam Dalli (PL) and David Casa (PN).

Earlier, Mr Camilleri took a step to possibly becoming the fourth Labour MEP when he was the biggest beneficiary of preference votes from Labour candidate Lino Bianco.

Mr Camilleri inherited 6,945 votes to raise his tally to 22,740. He later inherited 462 from Miriam Dalli's surplus votes to see his votes reach 23,202.

MIRIAM DALLI ELECTED

Former One journalist Miriam Dalli was elected at about 7.30pm, the third candidate to be elected after Alfred Sant and the PN's Roberta Metsola.

This was the first election which Dr Dalli - a lawyer and young mother - had contested.

She was greeted with long applause by party agents and congratulated by colleagues and political foes in the counting hall as the result became final. In brief comments she expressed her gratitude to the people and said she looked forward to working in Malta's interests. (See video)

Dr Dalli was elected as Labour candidate Lino Bianco was eliminated.

Earlier, PN candidate Norman Vella was eliminated, with most of his votes going to his PN counterparts.

The elimination of Norman Vella was preceded by that of Alternattiva Demokratika's Arnold Cassola who had 9,240 votes at his last count, including 963 he inherited with the elimination of Norman Lowell. 1,900 of Mr Lowell's votes went to the PL, and some 1,000 to the PN.

Out of Prof. Cassola's votes the Labour Party got 2,050, the Nationalist Party 2,880 and 4,310 votes were non-transferable.

DEBORAH SCHEMBRI ELIMINATED

With the elimination of Deborah Schembri, most of the vote preferences went to Marlene Mizzi (2,981) and Miriam Dalli (2,394).

145 votes went to Arnold Cassola and 72 went to the PN. The rest went to the other Labour candidates  and the rest were non transferable.

The result means the PN lead over the PL for the sixth seat is now 719 votes.

CHARLON GOUDER ELIMINATED

With the elimination of Labour’s Charlon Gouder, Miriam Dalli was the big gainer. Her vote tally rose 35,120 putting her 859 votes short of a quota.

Next was Marlene Mizzi on 23,411 votes and Clint Camilleri on 15,685. Joseph Cuschieri closed to 14,954 but is now seen as being out of the running.

For the PN David Casa has 23,271 followed by Francis Zammit Dimech at 11,180.

NOT JUST A MATTER OF NUMBERS - ANALYST

Herman Schiavone, an elections analyst said that till now the talk had been on the numerical advantage which the PN had for the sixth seat – its third.

But this was now secondary because what was important was how the votes were transferred to the individual candidates.

By the end of the current process there could be from two to three candidates who could be elected without achieving a quota.

He explained that Marlene Mizzi and Clint Camilleri were expected to be neck and neck with the elimination of Lino Bianco on the Labour list.

In the PN, if Ray Bugeja was not eliminated, the elimination of Norman Vella, Francis Zammit Dimech and Therese Comodini Cachia could see a situation where both Mr Bugeja and David Casa would be elected without a quota. 

If Mr Bugeja was eliminated and votes were transferred to David Casa, the PN probability of winning the third seat would be somewhat reduced once Mr Casa utilised his full quota to be elected.

The candidate with the least number of votes would be eliminated and the rest would take the remaining three seats.

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