Robert Abela has done it again.

Once more since he took over the reins of the country from Joseph Muscat, he has shown total disregard to the democratic process.

It was announced on Monday that the Labour Party had approved the nomination of lawyer Andy Ellul to replace Silvio Grixti in Parliament. Grixti resigned before Christmas after being questioned by the police in relation to an investigation into the irregular issuing of sick leave notes.

The resignation triggered a process by which the Electoral Commission sought to replace Grixti in Parliament via a casual election. But none of the candidates eligible for the post applied to take part, leaving no other way out but for the PL to co-opt its new member.

It is easy to think that there were internal manoeuvrings leading to this decision, which must have had the blessing of the Prime Minister.

Grixti was representing the third district, but Ellul had contested the fourth in the 2017 election. One way of describing it is that the PM has chosen the interests of the fourth district while discarding those of the third.

It has become a pattern for Abela to act in this way. They are signs of autocracy.

Ellul becomes the fifth MP in the last two years to find his seat in Parliament, on the Labour side, without being democratically elected by the people.

When Joseph Muscat and Etienne Grech resigned in the same month in October 2020, a casual election was required to fill the place vacated by Muscat (Grech had himself been elected via a casual election and so, in this case, a co-option was required). But the PL then chose to go for two direct co-options, bringing in Miriam Dalli and Clyde Caruana, who were later also appointed ministers following a Cabinet reshuffle.

The next time was even more of a charade. Gavin Gulia was elected via a casual election to fill the seat vacated by Edward Scicluna. Gulia said he was happy to be making a return to the House after seven years, and even quit the post he held as chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority. But then, minutes after being sworn in as an MP, Gulia resigned to make way for Abela’s hand-picked Oliver Scicluna.

The resignation of Manuel Mallia, who left the House to become Malta’s High Commissioner to London, had brought about the selection of Jonathan Attard as Mallia’s replacement. Mallia had been elected in a casual election on the ninth district, so a co-option was necessary. Attard, however, is not from the same district. Again, Abela’s personal choice trumped the interests of the ninth district.

Ellul’s qualities are not in dispute, just as much as the qualities of Dalli, Caruana, Scicluna and Attard were not when it had been their turn.

What is questionable is the way the Prime Minister is doing away with the electoral process, one of the foundations of our democratic system, to pick and choose the people to his liking.