Parliamentary secretary for the elderly Justyne Caruana has defended herself against insinuations that she should not have a seat in Parliament following a court judgment declaring that there were errors in the counting of votes in the last election.

Asked to comment on the recent court judgment Dr Justyne Caruana replied “There was a court judgement and an appeal was filed. In my case there was no question about it, it was declared in court and it was acknowledged by the PN from day one. My votes are there. I’m here to do a job”.

Dr Caruana was elected on the 13th District by just 10 votes, which was contested by the PN in Court and resulted in the recent ruling.

Asked to comment on Dr Caruana’s statement, the PN said: “We won the case in court which confirmed that the Nationalist Party should be given another two seats in Parliament. The court’s ruling is clear. The Nationalist Party sticks to facts and court decisions, and not to any kind of interpretation. People's choices, which were reflected in the court's decision, should come into effect as soon as possible”. Minutes after the judgement was made public, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that the government would be appealing the decision.

Upon the announcement of the appeal Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said; “the court took two years to decide on the issue because the government protracted the issue as much as it could. Now, instead of accepting the outcome, it intends to appeal to continue delaying the issue. This is an insult to democracy”.