In the end, Simon Busuttil’s overwhelming popularity – and the weakness of his fellow Nationalist Party candidates – turned out to be the main cause that prevented the PN from obtaining the third seat in the European Parliament.

It’s not that it would have been the fairest of results, considering that the Labour Party won the election with the biggest ever margin of first count votes, which resulted in a 15 per cent difference between the PL and the PN.

But the quirks of the single transferable vote could have enabled the PN to have the same number of seats as the PL had Dr Busuttil obtained fewer first count preferences than the record 68,000 he obtained.

Had 10,000 of these votes (probably even less) been given to Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas – and considering the way the votes given to PL candidates were spread out, so much so that the three (four) who were elected did so without obtaining the quota – the possibility of the PN winning its third seat would have increased.

Still, the fact that a 3-3 result was even possible in spite of the huge difference in first count preferences between the two major parties makes it clear that our electoral system has even more anomalies than we thought.

Various amendments have been made over time – most notably the pre-1987 electoral changes, which determined that the party obtaining the majority of votes is elected to government irrespective of the number of seats won – but these have not been enough to plug all the holes in the system.

As it happened, Labour obtained four seats in spite of the fact that they did not have four quotas while, ironically, only the two PN candidates who were elected managed to obtain the 41,000 required.

This was not the only quirk that took place in the counting hall at Naxxar. Our electoral system – and the unintelligent way most people vote, as many choose their favourite candidate and then continue giving preferences from top to bottom – gives a better opportunity to candidates whose surname starts with an “early” alphabet letter, irrespective of their validity or otherwise.

It could have happened in David Casa’s case. He inherited most of the number twos from Simon Busuttil, and although many did give their second preference to him because of his work in the past five years, many others simply carried on from top to bottom after having started with Dr Busuttil. Mr Casa was, good luck to him, right behind the runaway winner on the ballot sheet, and this gave him an advantage over Roberta.

It certainly happened when Claudette Abela Baldacchino was eliminated. More than half her votes went to John Attard Montalto, who was right behind her on the list. This helped Dr Attard Montalto to cruise past Marlene Mizzi and Joseph Cuschieri, into third place, which ensured he was returned to the EP for a second term.

And so, in spite of obtaining some 5,000 and 7,000 fewer first count preferences than Ms Mizzi and Mr Cuschieri respectively, Dr Attard Montalto will be in Brussels once again. Is this fair? Maybe not, but that’s how the system works.

Ms Mizzi would have made a better MEP than the other two. Pacenzja. At least Labour voters did weed out Glenn Bedingfield, who made a mess of the few months’ opportunity he was given when he replaced PL leader Joseph Muscat. Glenn’s substitute, Edward Scicluna, who is the only new Maltese MEP, has much more to offer in terms of commitment and acumen.

It is rather ironic that the party that had campaigned so vigorously against EU membership has won the two EP elections. Another good thing Labour supporters did was spare us the election of Sharon Ellul Bonici, who right until the very last day of the campaign maintained her anti-EU stand.

As for the PN, its defeat was mainly a consequence of the difficult year the country has gone through since the general election, and this includes international factors that have affected the domestic situation. Yet, I am sure that with a better team – the PN fielded weak candidates; many of them would never make it in a million years, for different reasons – they would have fared better.



scalleja@independent.com.mt