Ian Castaldi Paris and Rachel Tua have submitted their nominations for the casual election to replace Chris Cardona in Parliament.

Cardona's resignation has left a vacancy in the eighth district.

Seven candidates represented the Labour Party in that district in 2017, but, excluding Cardona, four of them already have a seat in the House, which means that one of the remaining candidates will be substituting the former Economy Minister.

Castaldi Paris is a former Nationalist Iklin mayor who switched to Labour.

Tua, a lawyer, served as the Labour Party's equal opportunities officer.

They had obtained 232 and 174 first count votes respectively three years ago, but the race starts from scratch on Wednesday. Tua had been eliminated before Castaldi Paris, who also has the advantage of having a surname closer to the top of the list, and just beneath Cardona's.

The four other Labour candidates on the eighth district were Edward Zammit Lewis and Edward Scicluna, two ministers, and Rosianne Cutajar and Alex Muscat, two parliamentary secretaries.

The counting of votes for this casual election shall take place on Wednesday, 13  May, from 9am onwards. The Malta Independent will be reporting live from the counting hall.

Cardona resigned last month, although he retained the role of PL deputy leader.

Reports about his imending resignation started doing the rounds in February, but the PL Deputy Leader had told The Malta Independent back then that he had no intention of resigning.