The PN is appealing to the government and the Electoral Commission to immediately implement this morning's decision by the Constitutional Court awarding two extra parliamentary seats to the PN after mistakes made in the election counting process in 2013.

However the government insisted that in terms of the law, no court sentence could become effective pending appeal or the expiry of the period within which an appeal could be filed.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil at a press conference that justice was now served not only with the PN but also as a reflection of how the people voted.

"While everyone has a right to appeal it is also clear that with every day that passes the PN is being deprived of two more seats in parliament"

Dr Busuttil said that the PN had immediately said that the result of the last election was not reflected in parliament and now the court had upheld the party's position.

He said that the Electoral commission was duty bound to respect the court decision and to implement decision without further delay.

With reference to the appeal which the government plans to file on the basis that the number of seats needs to reflect the number of votes allocated to the parties, Dr Busuttil said that argument had already been made during the proceedings and been rejected by the court.

He said that in terms of the court's decision, it was now up to the Electoral Commission to decide who of the PN's candidates should be declared elected - on the basis of who came closest to be elected in 2013, independently of which district he contested.  

GOVERNMENT REACTS

In a reply, the government said the seats in parliament allocated to the Opposition after the general election was proportional to the number of votes given to the Nationalist Party.

The government said it had a right to appeal this morning's decision because it concerned the way the Constitution was implemented.

Furthermore, in terms of the law and the right to a fair hearing, no court sentence could become effective pending appeal or the expiry of the period within which an appeal could be filed.

The two candidates likely to be made MPs if the court sentence is implemented  
are Edwin Vassallo and Peter Micallef, both former MPs who just missed being re-elected in 2013.  

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