Casual elections to fill seven extra Labour seats on 20 June

Casual elections in the Fifth, Twelfth, Second, Ninth, Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Electoral Divisions will be held on 20 June to elect seven Labour representatives after candidates who were elected on two districts ceded one of the seats.

The seats were ceded respectively by Joseph Muscat, Evarist Bartolo, Helena Dalli, Michael Falzon, Chris Fearne, Silvio Schembri, and Edward Scicluna. The Writ is published in today’s Government Gazette.

The Electoral Commission will be receiving candidates’ nominations for casual elections to elect members of parliament for these electoral divisions.

Eligible candidates who contested the mentioned electoral divisions in the 3 June General Election and who were not elected may present their nomination form daily from today, Wednesday 14 till Sunday 18 June, at the Electoral Commission’s Office at Evans Building, Merchants Street, Valletta, between 9am and 1pm. Nomination forms may be obtained from the Office of the Electoral Commission in Valletta.

The Electoral Commission said the counting of votes of this casual election will take place as from 8am of Tuesday, 20 June.

In casual elections, the first preference votes of the elected candidates are re-opened and the second preferences are counted. All participating candidates start from zero. The candidate obtaining half the quota plus one is elected; if this does not take place, the candidate obtaining the lowest number of votes is gradually eliminated until only one candidate remains.