The Nationalist Party is insisting it lost the election by seven parliamentary seats not nine and has filed a constitutional application requesting a remedy to this “violation” of human rights.
The final result did not respect the electorate’s wishes
In a fresh court application filed yesterday, the PN says its candidates Claudette Buttigieg (née Pace) and Frederick Azzopardi failed to be elected from the eighth and 13th districts respectively due to errors in the counting process.
A packet of 50 votes for Ms Buttigieg was mistakenly transferred to PN candidate Michael Asciak who got eliminated, resulting in the election of Labour’s Edward Scicluna instead, the party argued.
In the case of Mr Azzopardi, 10 votes went missing in the counting process, helping Labour’s Justyne Caruana get elected.
The errors, the PN said, had been acknowledged by the Electoral Commission.
Had one or both of the PN candidates been elected, Parliament’s composition would translate into a seven-seat majority for Labour instead of the nine seats awarded, the PN in-sisted, citing the proportional representation formula outlined in the electoral law.
The “serious shortcomings” of the Electoral Commission therefore violated the electorate’s wishes, the proportional representation rule and the European Convention’s human right to free elections.
“The Commission’s shortcomings resulted in the violation of the proportional representation formula provided in article 52 of the Constitution since the difference between the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party is based on incorrect numbers and resulted in the governing party having a gap of nine seats instead of seven seats,” the PN said in its court application.
PN’s initial complaints were turned down by the Constitutional Court since both its candidates, Ms Buttigieg and Mr Azzopardi, secured a seat in Parliament after extra seats were awarded to the PN in line with the proportional representation rule. There was therefore no juridical need to recount the votes in the eighth and 13th districts as requested, the court decided.
But PN is insisting otherwise, stressing that the final result did not respect the electorate’s wishes and that the court should declare that Ms Buttigieg and Mr Azzopardi were elected on their own steam and not through compensated seats.
The difference between the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party is based on incorrect numbers
It is also asking the court to address these errors and provide “remedies”, including by reducing the gap between the Government and Opposition to seven instead of nine parliamentary seats.
The court application was filed by human rights lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia, a PN candidate who was not elected, and was signed by Opposition leader Lawrence Gonzi, PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier, PN president Marthese Portelli as well as Ms Buttigieg and Mr Azzopardi.