The process to fill the seat vacated by John Dalli through a casual election started yesterday after President George Abela signed the writ.

In the writ, Dr Abela directed the Electoral Commission to hold the election in the sixth electoral district from where Mr Dalli was elected. The writ was published yesterday in an extraordinary edition of the Government Gazette.

With the recent nomination of Speaker Louis Galea to the European Court of Auditors, only two people can fill Mr Dalli's seat in Parliament: Siġġiewi mayor Robert Musumeci and Żebbuġ councillor Peter Micallef. Dr Galea could have chosen to contest the election.

An election will have to be held even if there is only one candidate who, in turn, will need to obtain half the quota to be elected: 1,878 votes. If this does not happen, the government would co-opt a person of its choice to the House.

Mr Musumeci will start the election in the sixth district with 165 votes, the number inherited by Mr Dalli in the general election when Mr Musumeci was eliminated. This will give him a head-start over Dr Micallef who departs with no votes.

Dr Micallef has declared he would be submitting his nomination but Mr Musumeci said he would not comment until the "opportune moment".

The government and the opposition have agreed to sus-pend Parliament for over two weeks until March 1, pending the casual election.