ADPD-The Green Party candidate Brian Decelis has submitted his nomination for the vacant seat on the Marsascala Local Council left by John Baptist Camilleri, saying he felt obliged to do so out of respect for the voters who supported him in the 2024 Local Council elections.
In a statement, ADPD said Decelis, who contested the 2024 local council elections in Marsascala, was the only unelected candidate remaining in the count with 426 votes.
Decelis said he felt a responsibility towards those who had given him their first preference vote in that election, amounting to 345 voters, as well as those who had transferred their support to him through subsequent preferences.
He said that he remained in contention until the final stages of the count and inherited 81 transferred votes when the last Nationalist Party candidate was elected without reaching the quota, bringing his tally to 426 votes by the 13th count.
ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci said the case highlighted one of the strengths of Malta's electoral system, based on the Single Transferable Vote (STV), which allows voters to rank candidates in their preferred order regardless of party affiliation.
The party said that Decelis was among the first councillors elected under the banner of Alternattiva Demokratika in 1994, when he won a seat on the Fgura Local Council after receiving a significant number of transferred preferences following a long list of independent candidates.
ADPD said that during his time on the council he worked closely with then Mayor Anthony Degiovanni, independent councillors (who held the majority), and Nationalist Party councillors.
The party added that although Decelis was not elected to the Marsascala council in 2024, he continued to work actively for the locality, particularly through the Marsascala Residents Network, an environmental NGO.
It said he had worked closely with John Baptist Camilleri, whose vacant seat he is now seeking to fill.
ADPD also said that if Decelis fails to obtain the quota required in the casual election, the party of the councillor whose seat became vacant - in this case the Nationalist Party - would be entitled to co-opt a person of its choosing to fill the position.