Antoine Borg is Malta’s newest MP after winning today’s casual election for former Prime Minister and Nationalist Party leader Lawrence Gonzi’s parliamentary seat.
Dr Gonzi has opted to retire from politics in the wake of a general election his party had lost, and after his party elected Simon Busuttil as its new leader.
Mr Borg was in second place at the end of the fifth and penultimate count with 1,361 votes, while former MP Peter Micallef obtained 1,380.
But as the 1,136 votes the eliminated candidate – former parliamentary secretary Tony Abela – were being divided, Mr Borg obtained a significantly larger share, and ended up with 2,253 votes to Dr Micallef’s 1,595.
His surname – specifically, the higher place on the ballet sheet it brings – appears to have helped: many PN activists present at the counting hall maintained that Mr Borg’s victory was assured before the last count even began.
The first count was concluded at around 10:45am, leaving Mr Borg in first place with 818 votes. Dr Micallef took second place with 700 votes, while Dr Abela obtained just 1 vote less.
The next three candidates – former MP Philip Mifsud, former parliamentary secretary Edwin Vassallo and David Vassallo – were close to each other, having obtained 664, 500 and 491 votes respectively. Rudolph Grima, who obtained 186 votes, was first to be eliminated.
The second count was finished by 11:05am, and while the rankings were unchanged, it provided a slight boost to Dr Micallef, who inherited the lion’s share of Mr Grima’s votes.
Mr Borg remains first with 842 votes, followed by Dr Micallef with 772, Dr Abela with 725, Mr Mifsud with 569 and Edwin Vassallo with 521.
Just seven votes separated Edwin Vassallo from David Vassallo, who was eliminated.
But at the third count, which concluded at around 11:30am, it was Edwin Vassallo who inherited the largest number of votes from the candidate sharing his surname, and his 685 votes at the third count enabled him to survive the round at the expense of Mr Mifsud, who ended up with 661 votes.
The top three remained unchanged: Mr Borg ended up with 963 votes, Dr Micallef with 821 and Dr Abela with 799.
The fourth count was concluded just before noon, and Edwin Vassallo nearly managed to catch up with Dr Abela after obtaining the second-largest number of votes.
But his 894 votes fell just short of Dr Abela’s 900, leading to his elimination, while Dr Micallef, who obtained the largest number of votes, practically cancelled out the gap between him and Mr Borg.
Dr Abela ended up with 1,136 votes when the fifth count at around 12:30pm, which proved insufficient, especially since both his remaining competitors obtained more votes in this round.