Robert Arrigo’s death creates parliamentary seat vacancy on 10th District

A casual election will have to be held on the 10th District to fill the seat vacated by the death of Nationalist Party MP Robert Arrigo.

The PN has three candidates who were not elected – St Julian’s Mayor Albert Buttigieg, former MP Karl Gouder and newcomer Emma Portelli Bonnici.

Arrigo’s baton could easily go to the St Julian’s mayor, who was the last PN candidate to be eliminated from the electoral race, although everything depends on how votes are transferred.

Buttigieg was involved in a tiff with the party's leadership earlier this year when he claimed that his electoral bid was obstructed internally at the whims of a "fat cat" with business interests in St Julian's.

Buttigieg never mentioned the names of either the PN official or the 'fat cat' with an internal party ethics probe concluding that the party should offer potential whistleblowers greater protection to encourage them to substantiate their claims. It had also recommended the introduction of a revolving doors policy for its officials after former Bernard Grech aid, Ray Bezzina, joined the DB Group just after stepping down from his party role.

Bezzina had himself asked for the ethics probe following Buttigieg's claims since many understood that the PN official who conspired with the 'fat cat' was a reference to him. Bezzina had denied the claims.

In last March’s general election, Arrigo was elected from the 9th and 10th districts. He gave up the 9th District seat in line with the PN’s internal policy regulating dual candidacy MPs. He retained the seat on the Sliema district where he scored more first count votes.

Arrigo died on Tuesday morning with many paying tribute to a man who was not only an MP but also a successful tourism sector entrepreneur and strongly involved in the Sliema community.

This is the second time within the space of five years that a parliamentary seat was vacated as a result of death. In October 2017, PN MP Frederick Azzopardi had passed away at the age of 71, necessitating a casual election in Gozo.