Two Labour candidates submit nominations for casual elections

Labour candidates Edward Cassar Delia and Rebecca Buttigieg have nominated themselves in the upcoming casual elections.

Cassar Delia will contest the second and third electoral districts, vacated by Clyde Caruana and Owen Bonnici respectively.

Buttigieg will contest two seats on the ninth district, ceded by Michael Falzon and Clifton Grima.

The Labour Party already decided that Rebecca Buttigieg will be elected to the House on the ninth district.

She was the only candidate left on the Labour ticket for this district, automatically giving her a seat in parliament.

While she retained one of the two seats awarded to her on the district, the Labour Party was still left with another seat on the ninth district that had to be filled up.

To fill this seat, the Labour Party co-opted Randolph Debattista, who is the editor of the party’s English news website The Journal.

General election candidates are allowed to submit nominations on two electoral districts, giving them the chance to be elected onto two parliamentary seats.

However, candidates cannot occupy two parliamentary seats, forcing them to vacate a seat of their choice.

MPs who vacate their parliamentary seat trigger a casual election, where their votes are counting again from the beginning, by allocating successive preferences on their ballots to the candidates contesting the casual election.

The Labour Party is holding casual elections on every district except for the 1st, 8th, 10th, 12th and 13th divisions.

The casual elections will be held on Thursday 7th April.