Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg will be ceding the 12th district and keeping the 13th, ending days of speculation that will now lead to the holding of casual elections to replace PN candidates who were elected on two districts in last week's election.

In its statement Friday, the PN made no reference to how it arrived at the decisions regarding the vacating of seats. Previous reports indicated that the party statute would have led Borg to give up his home district, the 13th, but that the party was trying to find a re-interpretation of what the statute laid down. In the end, Borg retained the 13th district.

Over the past days, the PN found itself in a quandary as its statute lays down that candidates elected from two districts must relinquish the seat in the district where they obtained the lower number of first count votes as a percentage of the respective district quota. In this case, Borg was supposed to give up the 13th district. 

But Borg did not want to give up his home seat, the Gozo district, fearing backlash among Gozitan voters. Being the party leader, he did not go through the normal approval channels to contest the election, and was considered to be no ordinary candidate, leading him to retain the 13th district seat.

In its statement, the PN also announced which districts the other six candidates who won two seats will be giving up.

Stephen Spiteri was elected from the second (2nd) and third (3rd) districts, and will be vacating the seat on the third (3rd) electoral district.

Mark Anthony Sammut was elected from the fourth (4th) and tenth (10th) districts, and will be vacating the seat on the tenth (10th) electoral district.

Conrad Borg Manché was elected from the fifth (5th) and tenth (10th) districts, and will be vacating the seat on the fifth (5th) electoral district.

Adrian Delia was elected from the seventh (7th) and eighth (8th) districts, and will be vacating the seat on the seventh (7th) electoral district.

Rebekah Borg was elected from the seventh (7th) and eleventh (11th) districts, and will be vacating the seat on the seventh (7th) electoral district.

Joe Giglio was elected from the ninth (9th) and tenth (10th) districts, and will be vacating the seat on the tenth (10th) electoral district.

Joe Giglio was elected from the ninth (9th) and tenth (10th) districts, and will be vacating the seat on the tenth (10th) electoral district. 

This paves the way for casual elections to be held in the districts that have been vacated, the PN said.

The PN congratulated all its Members of Parliament who were elected in the general election held last Saturday, as well as those who are still to be elected in the casual elections to be held in the coming days, and the female candidates who will be elected to Parliament through the gender equality mechanism.

The PN also thanked all the candidates who contested this general election on its behalf and who offered themselves to serve the Party and the country.

The Labour Party, in a statement, said that Borg had breached the party's statute.

The blatant manner in which Nationalist Party Leader Alex Borg breached his party's own statute shows the irresponsible way in which he leads, putting his own convenience first.

If he does not even respect the rules within his own party, one can only imagine how likely he is to keep his word with the Maltese people from the Opposition benches, let alone from Government, the PL said.