Rosianne Cutajar and Glenn Bedingfield were the biggest names to make it to Parliament as the Labour Party’s vacated seats went to a casual election on Thursday.
In a process which took little over 45 minutes – much shorter than it usually would – due to the electronic counting system used in a general election for the first time this year, a total of nine seats went up for election.
It was not a morning bereft of surprises either, as a number of incumbent MPs missed out and therefore lost their seats in Parliament outright.
Rosianne Cutajar, who just missed out on election in her home 6th district, had little difficulty being elected through the casual election for the seat vacated by new Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg.
Glenn Bedingfield meanwhile, who served as the PL’s whip in the last legislature, came out on top, albeit with a much narrower degree of comforting, as he beat out Oliver Scicluna by a hair’s breadth to win a seat on the 2nd district.
Bedingfield will no doubt be breathing a sigh of relief: he only ranked 8th out of the PL candidates on this district during the full election, but Clyde Caruana’s votes went a lot more his way.
That also means that Joe Mizzi – who has been in Parliament since 1987 – has not been elected to Parliament.
On the 11th district, Mosta mayor Romilda Baldacchino Zarb was elected in what can be considered as a surprise result, particularly as the man who lost out to her – incumbent MP Antony Agius Decelis – performed much better than she did on first count votes.
In fact, Agius Decelis had obtained 2,393 first count votes compared to the 985 first count votes obtained by Baldacchino Zarb. Agius Decelis’ first count vote tally was actually higher than that of Alex Muscat – who was only elected after the vote inheritance went his way.
Miriam Dalli’s votes however went Baldacchino Zarb’s way, paving the way for the Mosta mayor to be elected.
Jean Claude Micallef was another incumbent MP who lost his seat, after he lost out on the 3rd district to Ray Abela by just 19 votes.
Alicia Bugeja Said, who was the closest to being elected on the district during the main election, missed out, but she will still make it to Parliament through the gender corrective mechanism, which will come into force after the PN’s casual elections next week.
Mqabba mayor Omar Farrugia and Zebbug mayor Malcolm Agius Galea were both elected on the 5th and 7th districts respectively, while Katya DeGiovanni was another surprise winner, as she was elected on the 4th district as she beat out Oliver Scicluna to the seat.
Rebecca Buttigieg was elected on the 9th district, the counting being a mere formality as she was the only candidate to stand for election here.
The final vacated seat – also from the 9th district – will be taken up by new PL CEO Randolph Debattista, who will be co-opted to the seat.