Divorce campaigner Deborah Schembri is the new face elected to Parliament along with another four sitting MPs who retained their place following Thursday’s casual elections.

Dr Schembri was the last person to be elected on the 12th district after a race with newcomer Clayton Bartolo that was neck and neck. In fact, she won by a mere 59 votes.

On other districts, lawyers Luciano Busuttil and Michael Falzon, veteran politician Joe Debono Grech and Chris Agius clung to their parliamentary seat thanks to vacated posts.

Dr Falzon won the casual election on the 10th district, taking the seat vacated by Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia.

He garnered 1,646 votes on the first count. Clifton Grima got 349 votes, musician Sigmund Mifsud got 443 votes, General Workers’ Union lawyer Joanne Vella Cuschieri won 364 votes and student Nikita Zammit Alamango got 156 votes.

On the second district, Mr Agius clinched the quota of 1,914 votes and took the seat vacated by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

On the eighth district, Mr Debono Grech was elected with 2,011 votes. This is his 41st year as an MP and, at 73, he will be the oldest member in the House. Mr Debono Grech said he still felt he had a lot to offer to the country and to his party.

Having been first elected to Parliament in 1958, Mr Debono Grech hinted this would be his last term. In his first comments after his election, he said he was happy to be ending his career on the government benches. The casual election proceedings on the first and 12th district took much longer than the others as the race was tight.

On the first district, Dr Busuttil, a former Ħamrun mayor, and newcomer David Farrugia Sacco were the favourites for the seat vacated by EU Affairs Minister Louis Grech. However, as things began to unfold, it was evident that Yana Mintoff Bland, the daughter of former Prime Minister and Labour leader Dom Mintoff, also stood a chance of getting elected with the three candidates separated by just a handful of votes.

When John Buttigieg was eliminated and his 167 votes redistributed, the situation took a different twist and Dr Mintoff Bland was eliminated, leaving lawyers Busuttil and Farrugia Sacco in a photo finish.

On the second count, there were just 38 votes separating the two. However, the situation changed drastically at the next count as Dr Busuttil got the bulk of next-preference votes, taking the seat with 2,155 votes, 600 more than Dr Farrugia Sacco.

There was another photo finish on the 12th district as Dr Schembri and Mr Bartolo, an accountant, battled for the seat vacated by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.

At this point, there were only 50 votes separating the two. In the end, it was Dr Schembri who prevailed with just 59 extra votes. She was elected despite not reaching the quota by 66 votes.

Dr Schembri, who became popular as a frontliner in the divorce campaign in 2011, wept with joy as she received calls on her mobile congratulating her for making it to Parliament.

The casual election for the Nationalist Party will be held on Wednesday.