Casual election on Tuesday morning
Keep your eyes on the road – Transport Malta warns in new video
A casual election will be held on Tuesday morning for the parliamentary seat vacated by former minister Leo Brincat, who took up his new job at the European Court of Auditors this week.
As of yesterday’s deadline for nominations to fill the ninth electoral district seat, nominations had been received from: Clifton Grima, Emanuel Micallef, Simon Saliba and Nikita Zammit Alamango.
The counting of ballot papers will begin at 9 am on Tuesday at the Naxxar Counting Complex.
Clifton Grima in pole position
Mount Carmel CEO Clifton Grima appears to be in pole position in the race to fill Mr Brincat’s seat, having obtained 1,464 first count votes in the ninth district in the last general election.
The most successful candidate on the district was Competitiveness (former Home Affairs) Minister Manuel Mallia, who had garnered 2,950 votes. Leo Brincat came second and (former Parliamentary Secretary) Michael Falzon placed third with 1,892 votes.
Clifton Grima obtained more than twice the number of votes of the next person in line – Simon Saliba, who has 678 votes. The rest, in the order in which they placed, are Nikita Zammit Alamango, Sigmund Mifsud, Emanuel Micallef, Victor Paul Ellul and Anthony Mifsud Bonnici.
Candidates will have to reach 50% of the quota set during the election proper, which was 3,934 votes. This means that the quota for the casual election would be 1,917 votes.
The candidates would ‘lose’ all their first count votes and effectively start on a level playing field.
Their chances of election will depend heavily on the votes they shed when they were eliminated in the counting process (they would win most of them back) and the second preference votes in Mr Brincat’s vote packet.
In the unlikely eventuality that no candidate reaches a quota, the PL would co-opt somebody to fill the vacated seat. Transport Malta yesterday released a new video warning about the dangers of distracted driving.
The one-minute clip tells the story of a mother who runs over a cyclist while texting her husband pictures of the birthday cake she has just bought for their daughter.
The clip is part of the ‘Respect on the road’ campaign, which has various phases and will continue over the coming weeks. The campaign’s messages are being aired on TV, social media and radio stations.
Transport Malta and the Malta Road Safety Council have embarked on an educational campaign to raise awareness on road safety. The campaign is expanding on other issues over the coming weeks with the aim of raising the level of driving and to make roads safer.
In this context, Transport Malta welcomed the launch of the public consultation on the penalty point system for all drivers. “This is a step towards improving road safety,” it said.