Casual election for Karmenu Vella seat: Farrugia elected

Former Labour MP Joseph Farrugia known as 'il-Farell' has been elected to parliament to fill the seat vacated by former tourism minister, now European Commissioner Karmenu Vella, following a tight contest between former Labour MP Anthony Zammit. Farrugia has previous experience as an MP during the 22-month Labour administration of 1996-1998. 

Farrugia overtook Zammit in the final count with 1985 votes against 1899 for Zammit.

The other candidates vying for Vella’s seat on the fifth district included Robert Henry Bugeja – currently in the eye of a storm over inflammatory comments on migration he made in Facebook – Marsaxlokk mayor Edric Micallef, and Marsascala mayor Mario Calleja.

Vote-counting started Thursday morning at 9am.

Calleja was the first to be eliminated with 368 votes. Micallef was eliminated with 547 votes. Bugeja was eliminated at the third count with 788.

Zammit was leading with 1,724 votes followed by Farrugia with 1,388 at the end of the third  count but Farrugia recovered in the final count.This means that neither candidate managed to reach the winning quota of 2,018 votes.