Mr Galea, who is a councillor on the Pembroke local council, was elected to parliament following a casual election held yesterday morning. He is married and has three girls. On the first count, Mr Galea obtained 1,139 votes, John Vella obtained 612 votes, Carmelo Grima got 445, Ian Micallef got 416, and Albert Rizzo got 361 votes.

As names started getting struck off the list, it was a race between Mr Galea and Dr Vella. On the last count, Mr Galea got 1,933 votes while Dr Vella received 1,411.

In his first comments following his election on the fifth count, he said he still could not believe that he had just been elected to parliament.

His first thought, and therefore his gratitude, went to his family who helped him and supported him both during the electoral campaign before the 2003 general election as well as in the run up to this casual election.

He said that as from Monday, he will start working in the best interest of the Maltese people and also see what could be done for the country.

Asked by The Malta Independent whether it meant anything special for him that he is filling a post vacated by Dr Borg, who has been in politics for many years, Mr Galea replied in the affirmative. “I respect Joe Borg and we are very good friends. I am obviously honoured that I am replacing someone who has done so much and worked so hard for Maltese politics,” he said.

Asked whether he feels he could make a difference when it comes to tourism, since he works in the industry, Mr Galea said he will strive to make a difference in everything he does, especially tourism which is his bread and butter.

Answering another question put by The Malta Independent, Mr Galea said, jokingly, that he never imagined that he would find himself so involved in the political sphere and even more in parliament.

“I know it’s going to sound funny, but up till two years ago I never even dreamt of being involved in politics. Strangely enough, I used to ignore anything related to politics. My life changed drastically in just two years. I was urged to contest the local council election and I was elected immediately. This is the first time I have contested a general election. Since there was no specific aim as you are saying, maybe it was a question of being in the right place at the right time,” he said.