A court judgment awarding the Nationalist Party two extra parliamentary seats to rectify mistakes in the electoral process had “serious Constitutional implications”, the Prime Minister said.

Joseph Muscat yesterday insisted the government would be appealing the judgment by Madam Justice Lorraine Schembri Orland, who reached the same conclusions as those of another judge last year.

“While I have every respect for the judge, I don’t agree with the judgment and as a government we will be appealing it,” Dr Muscat said. The judgment says the PN must be awarded two extra seats within a month and that these should go to the two highest-polling candidates who were next in line.

The ruling would bring the difference in parliamentary seats between the two parties to seven, something denied to the PN by an error in the vote sorting process.

“The judgment has serious Constitutional implications and it is the government’s duty to take the case to the highest court by appealing,” Dr Muscat said.

He was reflecting arguments made by former Labour deputy leader Toni Abela, who is representing the Labour Party inthe case.

In his reaction, Dr Abela said the judgment “tore the Constitution to shreds”. Elections were no longer guided by the Constitution, he added.

He argued this was not a case of a system intentionally manipulated to exclude a party or a candidate, but an instance of human error.

Dr Abela insisted the remedy chosen by the court should not have applied as the final election result still reflected people’s will.