Updated 3.50 pm 

Three mayors, one European Parliament operative and a former Labour minister were elected to parliament on the Nationalist Party ticket in casual elections held today. 

Siġġiewi mayor Karol Aquilina beat long-serving former minister George Pullicino to a seat in the 10th district (Sliema), in what was one of two major upsets in the race for five vacated PN seats. 

Earlier, former Labour minister and whip Godfrey Farrugia was returned to Parliament, this time representing the Partit Demokratiku, which contested the elections under the PN ticket.

Video: Jonathan Borg

Dr Farrugia was elected in the seventh district to fill the seat ceded by PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami, who had been elected from two districts.

The PN's three remaining seats were filled by Naxxar mayor Maria Deguara, Mosta mayor Ivan Bartolo and European People's Party spokesman David Stellini.

'Seven weeks ago I was still Labour whip'

In his first comments to the media, Dr Farrugia described his election as a feat.

“Seven weeks ago I was still Labour’s whip, and I only threw my name into the hat a month before the election,” he said.

Dr Farrugia will be the second PD MP, the other being his partner Marlene, who also started the last legislature as a Labour MP before resigning from the Labour parliamentary group.  

Earlier the vote-counting hit a snag when it transpired that 509 votes obtained by Beppe Fenech Adami were unaccounted for.

It was established that the votes had been misplaced in the strongroom with those of another candidate, Jean Pierre Debono, who was elected in the election proper.

After the votes were distributed, most went to Dr Farrugia.

Two couples in parliament

Dr Farrugia's election means there are now two couples in parliament, both on the Opposition benches - Jean-Pierre and Kristy Debono and Godfrey and Marlene Farrugia.

Video: Jonathan Borg

Earlier, Mosta mayor Ivan Bartolo was elected to fill the seat vacated in the 11th district by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil.

Video: Jonathan Borg

On the 13th district, Marthese Portelli's seat was won by new candidate David Stellini, who until recently served as the local spokesman of the European People's Party.

Mr Stellini's job meant that he has been away from Malta for 10 years. He expressed satisfaction at his result, especially since he was only asked to contest the election at the end of April.

However, he described the experience as very rewarding, saying his objective in the next five years would be to keep doing home visits to keep in touch with his Gozitan constituents. On a personal level, this would mean that he would be relocating to the sister island, he said.    

Dr Stellini was elected after a tight race with Kevin Cutajar with the difference being just 44 votes as the initial 200 vote gap was getting smaller with each count.

The second 11th district seat up for grabs was won by Naxxar mayor Maria Deguara, the wife of former Health Minister Louis Deguara. 

 

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.