Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1463105
NEWS 2022 ELECTION 4 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 30 MARCH 2022 PAUL COCKS ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo will be filing a Constitutional Case today to challenge Malta's electoral law after the party achieved a national vote count equivalent to a quota in Saturday's gener- al election. Cacopardo told MaltaTo- day that the Maltese electoral system discriminated against third parties, by offering a proportionate number of seats to the parties whose candidates are individually elected in constituencies. ADPD obtained 4,747 first count votes, higher than the national quota, and the par- ty believes it is being unfairly denied representation in Par- liament. "The system as it stands dis- criminates against votes that do not go to the two big par- ties," he said. "This is a fight to make every vote actually count." Under Maltese law, the ad- justment for proportionality only applies to two parties whose candidates are elected to the House. Since its founding in 1989 as Alternattiva Demokratika, ADPD has never achieved the election of a candidate from any of Malta's 13 districts. It obtained its highest showing in 2013, with a nationwide 1.8% of the national vote, or 5,506 votes. ADPD obtained 244 first count votes on District 1, 311 on District 2, 378 (District 3), 391 (District 4), 409 (District 5), 320 (District 6), 510 (Dis- trict 7), 415 (District 8), 439 (District 9), 203 (District 10), 269 (District 11), 527 (Dis- trict 12) and 331 (District 13). ADPD to file Constitutional case claiming seat ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo Aquilina, Azzopardi will contest casual elections MATTHEW VELLA FORMER Nationalist MPs Ja- son Azzopardi and Karol Aq- uilina will be contesting casual elections on the ninth, and tenth districts respectively in a bid to regain their seat in the House. The two MPs were left out of the House even after having spent the last five years at the forefront of the Nationalist Par- ty's anti-corruption battle-cry as vocal critics of the Labour administration as well as of for- mer PN leader Adrian Delia. Aquilina garnered 931 and 403 first-count votes in the 10th and 9th districts, while Azzopardi got 546 first-count votes in the 9th district – both constituen- cies tend to be stereotyped as Nationalist strongholds in the more affluent coastal towns of Sliema, St Julian's, Swieqi and Ta' Xbiex. And while the two MPs were left out of the House, the former PN leader they fought to oust in a backbench rebellion – Adrian Delia – managed to get elected on two districts. Delia's former deputy leader for party affairs, Robert Arrigo, was also elected on both the 9th and 10th. Azzopardi and Aquilina will be able to contest the 9th district for two seats vacated by Arrigo and new PN heavyweight Joe Giglio; and Aquilina the 10th district seat vacated by Mark Anthony Sammut – the new- comer MP who won election on Azzopardi's home constituency of Paola and Tarxien (fourth district). "I know the probability of me getting elected on the ninth district is low, but out of my re- spect for voters I will throw my hat in the ring, and even though I am realistic and know chanc- es are slim," Azzopardi said on Facebook. He thanked all those whom he said "literally risked everything and worked against opposing forces to deliver the PN's mes- sage." He thanked fourth district voters who lent him their sup- port since 1998, while congrat- ulating Mark Anthony Sammut for getting elected for the first time on that district. "I am cer- tain you will be representing the fourth district with dignity," he said. Karol Aquilina said he would contest casual elections in both the 9th and 10th districts. "Like the rest of my National- ist Party colleagues, I am very disappointed by the election result. At a personal level, I am immensely satisfied that I won three times as many votes on the 10th district as I did in 2017," Aquilina said, who gar- nered 343 first-count prefer- ences in 2017, and now 931 first-count votes. Jason Azzopardi (left) and Karol Aquilina (right) will be contesting casual elections on the ninth and tenth districts respectively