The casual elections to fill the seats vacated by Miriam Dalli at the European Parliament and by Frederick Azzopardi in the House of Representatives will be held on 5 November, the Electoral Commission said.

Dalli resigned her EP seat and was co-opted to the Maltese Parliament last week. She was sworn in as an MP together with OPM chief of staff Clyde Caruana. They replaced former PM Joseph Muscat and MP Etienne Grech.

During the same month, Gozitan MP Frederick Azzopardi passed away, paving the way for a casual election on the 13th district.

The Electoral Commission said eligible candidates have to submit their nominations between Friday 30 October and Tuesday 3 November.

Both elections will be held at the Naxxar Counting Hall on 5 November.

The Electoral Commission further notifies that the counting of votes for this casual election shall take place at the Counting Hall, Naxxar, on Thursday 5th November 2020 from 8:30am onwards.

In the case of the 13th district, Ryan Mercieca has the highest number of first count votes after the two MPs who were elected – Chris Said and Frederick Azzopardi.

Miriam Dalli obtained the highest number of votes from among the Labour candidates – 63,438. Alfred Sant, Josianne Cutajar and Alex Agius Saliba were also elected for the PL.

The candidate with the highest number of first count votes after these four was Cyrus Engerer, with 5,395.