The Electoral Commission’s appeal against a Constitutional Court decision to grant the Nationalist Party two extra seats in Parliament was almost filed in the wrong Court, The Malta Independent has learnt.

The error was only noticed because the draft appeal was leaked to the Labour Party, and a hawk-eyed party official spotted the error.

The appeal was set to be mistakenly lodged in an Appeals Court rather than the Constitutional Court.

The Electoral Commission has been mulling appealing the Constitutional Court decision granting the Nationalist Party an additional two seats in Parliament for the past few weeks.

The two seats were lost by the PN in the March 2013 general election due to a counting error on the Electoral Commission’s part.

The Commission voted on whether to appeal the Constitutional Court’s decision last week but the vote resulted in a four-all draw.

Both political parties have four representatives each on the Commission, as well as a government appointed representative approved by the Opposition.

Another meeting was held on Monday, during which the Commission decided five-four in favour of an appeal thanks to Chairman Joseph Church’s casting vote.

 

The government is also set to appeal the Constitutional Court’s decision. Justice Minister Owen Bonnici has told The Malta Independent that there are serious grounds on which an appeal must be filed.