Former Nationalist mayor Ian Castaldi Paris joins the Labour Party parliamentary group, winning a casual election to replace Chris Cardona who resigned last month.

Castaldi Paris, who had switched to Labour after the latter won the 2013 election, obtained 2,286 votes against the 1,300 garnered by his only rival, Rachel Tua. The number of non-transferable votes was 100.

In his first comments as a newly-elected MP, Castaldi Paris said that he will give up his role as chairman of Identity Malta and his directorship at Air Malta.

He was sworn-in as an MP during this evening's parliamentary sitting.

The two had been the only candidates who contested the election on the eighth district, as all other Labour contestants there already had a seat in Parliament.

The Coronavirus pandemic had its effect on the counting process at Naxxar where the casual election took place.

All staff involved in the counting process wore protective gear as they sifted through the 3,686 votes Cardona obtained and see who from the two candidates will get them. Party agents and the media were also required to wear protection.

The original quote on the district was 3,968, and so the quota today was half that, 1,984.

Video/Photos Alenka Falzon

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Earlier

The casual election to replace Labour MP Chris Cardona is taking place this morning, with the race for the seat between candidates Ian Castaldi Paris and Rachel Tua.

As the votes are to be sorted as from 9am, The Malta Independent will give you a brief run-through of how a casual election is carried out, and who the two candidates for the position are.

Following an MP's resignation, the President of Malta must, within five working days from the date of the receipt of the President’s Writ, publish in the Gazette that an election will be held to fill the vacated parliamentary seat.

Since Cardona was elected from the eighth electoral district, the candidates to fill the vacated seat must have contested the same district, did not withdraw from the election, and are still qualified to be elected.

In this case, the only two potentials were Castaldi Paris and Tua, with both putting forward their nomination for the vacated parliamentary seat. The other candidates who contested for Labour on the same district had all been elected earlier.

Within three working days, after the last day nominations can be put forward, the Electoral Commission decides on the validity of the nominations, which in this case was confirmed for both candidates on 11 May.

The Electoral Commission must then, within four working days, in this case, today, examine the ballot papers which were attributed to Cardona, in the 2017 general election. In the last general election, Cardona was elected with 3,686 votes (he had obtained 3,218 first preferences) which will be the votes to be distributed between the two contestants today.

What will happen today?

Cardona’s ballot papers will be transferred to the nominated candidates, in order of preference shown on the votes as per single-tranferable vote system used in Malta.

The candidate with the lowest number of votes is then excluded from the race. Since in this case, only two candidates are running the race, the other candidate automatically takes the seat.

The counting system will discard the number of votes obtained by the candidates in 2017, as both will be starting from zero.

Who are today’s candidates?

The candidate touted to win today’s race, Castaldi Paris, was previously a PN mayor of Lija and former president of the Nationalist Party's college of local councillors. 

Castaldi Paris, a notary by profession, had said that he had made the switch to the PL because “from Labour I have learnt what working as a team means, it brings strong and concrete results. I cannot say the same for the PN, it was more of an individual person working alone.”

He made the switch in 2014, after an uneasy relationship, claiming the party had not shown him respect.

In 2019, Castaldi Paris made the news after a social media spat with Cyrus Engerer, incidentally, also a former Nationalist official who shifted to Labour.

Castaldi Paris also sat on the board of directors of Air Malta, as well as being Chairman of Identity Malta.

During political turbulence on the island, in November 2019, it was reported by Times of Malta, that Castaldi Paris had uploaded a Facebook post about his admiration for Keith Schembri, saying the majority never doubted Schembri. The post is no longer available.

Of Castaldi’s 246 votes, 43 had been transferred to Cardona, through the proportional single transferable vote system, while of Tua’s 178 votes, 32 were transferred to Cardona.

Tua, a lawyer by profession, served as Labour’s equal opportunities officer and was also a Mosta Labour councillor.