The Electoral Commission will be meeting on Thursday to decide what to do after the Constitutional Court ordered it to ensure the Nationalist Opposition will get another two MPs.
When contacted, Chief Electoral Commissioner Joseph Church declined to comment on the court judgment and would not say whether an urgent meeting has been called on the matter, though this was confirmed by sources close to the Commission.
He would not comment either when asked whether the Commission would be abiding by the judgment or filing an appeal. “The Electoral Commission is not in a position to answer questions,” he said.
The government said it would appeal and noted that, as per normal practice, the judgment could not be executed until the appeal was decided.
We will now see whether we should start the process to elect the two new MPs or to appeal
The Commission is not bound to adopt the same stand if the government decides to appeal. “The Commission might decide not to appeal even though we will still have to await the final judgment before proceeding,” a Commission member said.
The PN has called for the implementation of the court judgment without delay.
“As a constitutionally-appointed body we are totally independent of the government and, therefore, it is up to us to decide how to proceed,” a Commission member who insisted on anonymity told Times of Malta.
“Together with our lawyer [Ian Refalo], we will now see whether we should start the process to elect the two new MPs or to appeal,” another commissioner said.
The Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that the Nationalist Party was deprived of two parliamentary seats as a result of a procedural error during the counting of votes in the 2013 general election. All the members of the Electoral Commission admitted that there had been a mistake when they testified in the case.
As a remedy, the court ordered the Electoral Commission to set in motion the process to elect the two new MPs within 30 days from the judgment.
The Electoral Commission – appointed by the President of Malta – comprises nine members. Four each are normally proposed by the two parties represented in Parliament while the Chief Electoral Commissioner is appointed in agreement between the government and the Opposition.
Mr Church, who served in President George Abela’s secretariat, was appointed by the government in February 2014 without the consent of the Opposition.