The Constitutional case filed by the Nationalist Party, which is requesting the court to address the Electoral Commission’s errors and provide remedies to reduce the gap between the government and the opposition in Parliament to seven seats, continued with Labour Party’s Vice President and Head of Labour’s Electoral Office, Louis Gatt saying that 10 votes could have made all the difference in the Gozo 13th District.

The Nationalist Party is saying that Claudette Buttigieg should have been elected from the eighth district and not Joe Debono Grech, who won Prof. Scicluna’s 8th district seat in a casual election. It is also saying that the Nationalist Party should also have won the 13th electoral district by three seats to two, Frederick Azzopardi being elected instead of Justyne Caruana.

Louis Gatt, who was the only witness in today's hearing, told Madame Justice Jacqueline Padovani  that the Electoral Commission was informed by Nationalist Party officials about 10 missing votes allocated to candidate Paul Buttigieg in the Gozo district and of 50 votes belonging to Claudette Buttigieg which were caught with those of Michael Axiaq in the eighth district.

He said that the 10 votes belonging to PN candidate Paul Buttigieg could have changed the outcome of the 13th District, even if such a small number seems negligible when compared to the thousands of votes cast.

Louis Gatt explained how Paul Buttigieg had 678 votes and when these were to be passed onto the other candidates, 10 votes were found to be missing. “The PN asked for a recount when only 668 votes were found in the packet, but the 10 votes were not found. Subsequently these were considered as being non-transferable votes”. However, he said that when one talks about ‘first count votes’ these had gone in favour of PN.

He described the work of party officials inside the counting hall as a monitoring duty. “They inform the Commission about any irregularities, and assess dubious votes, however the Electoral Commission has the final word”.

The Nationalist Party is stating that due to the misplaced votes Labour candidates Edward Scicluna and Justyne Caruana were elected on the 8th and 13th district respectively at the expense of Buttigieg and Azzopardi.

Lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia and Paul Borg Olivier are representing the Nationalist Party. Dr Paul Lia is appearing on behalf of PL while Professor Ian Refalo is representing the Electoral Commission and the Attorney General represented by Dr. Susanne Sciberras.  The case continues on 9 April 2014.