Nominations open for PN casual elections

Nominations for those interested in contesting the seven casual elections to fill seats vacated by Nationalist MPs elected on two districts have opened today.

The notice published by the Electoral Commission on the Government Gazette states that casual elections will be held to fill vacant seats on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th districts. On the 7th and 9th districts, two casual elections will be held.

The period for nominations closes on Saturday and the casual elections will be held next week.

The nominations opened after President George Vella on Monday signed the writ to kick-start the casual elections process for seats vacated by PN MPs.

Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech gave up his seat on the 5th District, while Stephen Spiteri gave up the 3rd District seat. On the 7th District, the vacated seats of Ryan Callus and Adrian Delia are up for grabs, while on the 9th District the PN has to fill seats vacated by Robert Arrigo and Joe Giglio. The last vacancy is on the 10th District after Mark Anthony Sammut gave up his seat.

The PN statute stipulates that dual-candidacy MPs have to give up the district on which they have the lowest share of first count votes as a percentage of the respective district quota. This system removes any interference by the party in deciding which seats MPs have to give up.

Meanwhile, nominations for the casual elections triggered by dual-candidacy Labour MPs close today and the elections are likely to be held on Thursday.

Casual elections will be held on the 2nd District seat vacated by Clyde Caruana, the 3rd District vacated by Owen Bonnici, the 4th District vacated by Chris Fearne, the 5th District vacated by Robert Abela, the 6th vacated by Ian Borg, the 7th vacated by Silvio Schembri, two seats on the 9th District vacated by Michael Falzon and Clifton Grima, and the 11th vacated by Miriam Dalli.

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