A judge yesterday dismissed a Labour Party application disputing the court’s jurisdiction over a case instituted by the Nationalist Party contesting the election process.

The issue revolves around a mistake in the counting on the eighth district, when a packet of 50 votes for Claudette Buttigieg was mistakenly transferred to PN candidate Michael Asciak. Dr Asciak was later eliminated and Labour’s Edward Scicluna was elected instead.

The PN argues that mistakes in the counting process affected the outcome of the election and the PN could possibly have won two more seats.

Labour claimed the First Hall of the Civil Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case but Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani disagreed. She ruled the court did have the jurisdiction to hear the evidence and decided it should carry on according to law.

Following the ruling, PN lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia told the court only one witness was still to be heard.

Lawyer Paul Lia, who is representing Labour elected MPs Justyne Caruana, Joe Debono Grech and Edward Scicluna, objected to witnesses who were not competent to testify on facts and could only give an opinion.

Dr Comodini Cachia replied the aim of the witness was to shed light on the prejudice the PN suffered.

Madam Justice Padovani ordered the witness to be heard.

At the last sitting, Ms Buttigieg, elected to Parliament for the first time in March, described how tensions rose when votes for her were allocated to another candidate.

“I thought that once a mistake had been made, it would be corrected,” she said, quickly adding that the opposite had happened and 50 votes were placed in a box marked ‘dubious’. The case con-tinues later this month.