Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/841483
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 25 JUNE 2017 13 eral election, both submitted their nomination to contest the seat. Cutajar was elected with 2,884 votes after the first count, with Gulia collecting 877 votes. District 7 Former Labour whip and Partit Demokratiku candidate Godfrey Farrugia, who ran on the PN tick- et, was elected to parliament in the casual election for the seat ceded by Beppe Fenech Adami. Sam Abela appeared to be in the lead following the first count, however it was discovered that the votes distributed did not tally by some 500 votes with the number of votes collected by Fenech Adami. It transpired that the 'missing votes' had been placed in another candidate's pile, and were the votes inherited by Fenech Adami from Farrugia. Although the PD candidate ran on the PN ticket, it appeared that many PN officials at the count- ing hall were hopeful that the seat would go to a PN candidate, rather than Farrugia. The 'missing' votes however gave Farrugia a huge boost, putting him in the lead with a comfortable 400-vote cushion. Despite being a PD candidate, Farrugia continued to gain votes from eliminated PN candidates, and he finally beat Ab- ela by 239 votes. District 8 The casual election for finance minister Edward Scicluna's seat was easily won by former minister Edward Zammit Lewis, who many expected to make it back to parlia- ment. While he initially did not make the cut, having been beaten by Scicluna and Chris Cardona, Zam- mit Lewis was elected on the first count of the casual election, taking 2,477 of Scicluna's votes, signifi- cantly more than the three com- peting candidates combined. In 2013, Zammit Lewis was elect- ed on the eighth district, in a result which saw Labour winning an ad- ditional seat compared to its usual two seats on the district. The fact that Labour was not able to hold on to this third seat in the district did not bode well for Zammit Lew- is, who also remained unelected on the ninth district. District 9 Another former minister who needed a casual election to return to parliament was Manuel Mal- lia. Mallia made headlines in 2014 while minister for Home Affairs, when his driver was involved in a shooting in the Regional Road tun- nel. Mallia was up against Gzira mayor Conrad Borg Manche and Nikita Zammit Alamango for the seat vacated by Michael Falzon. He won the casual election comforta- bly by a margin of over 1,000 votes. District 10 The PN casual elections were held on Wednesday, when 10 can- didates stood a chance of being elected on the 10th district, after the PN's executive council decided that Robert Arrigo was to give up his seat on the 10th. Arrigo was also elected on the ninth. Candidates Graziella Attard Pre- vi and Nick Refalo were thought to be best placed to win a seat at the start of the day, with former minis- ter George Pullicino also a favour- ite for re-election. In fact, Pullicino was in the lead following the first count, main- taining his lead throughout the day. On the sixth count, Pullicino had 1,070 votes, followed closely by Attard Previ, with 912, and Refalo (709), Karol Aquilina (538) and Alan Abela Wadge (531). Aquilina's seven-vote advantage over Abela Wadge meant that the latter was eliminated first which led to Aquilina gaining 431 out of Abela Wadge's 531 votes, catapult- ing Aquilina into second place, 126 votes behind Pullicino. Aquilina continued to gain more votes with each passing round than Pullicino and ended up winning 2,104 votes, to Pullicino's 1,633. District 11 Two seats were available on the 11th district, after Opposition leader Simon Busuttil and PN whip David Agius both vacated their seat. Busuttil's votes were distribut- ed first, a majority of which went to former Mosta mayor Ivan Bar- tolo, who was elected with 2,317 votes after five counts. Bartolo won the largest number of votes following each count, and never looked likely to lose his lead over Alex Perici Calascione, who end- ed the day with 1,490 votes. Perici Calascione also placed second in the race for Agius' seat, losing to Maria Deguara after three counts. Deguara collected 2,302 votes, while Perici Calas- cione had 1,519. District 12 Joseph Matthew Attard, Clayton Bartolo, Alfred Grima and former parliamentary secretary Deborah Schembri contested the 12th dis- trict. At the end of the first round, Schembri enjoyed a lead of 492 votes over Bartolo, however 74% of Grima and Attard's votes went to Bartolo following their elimi- nation. Bartolo was elected to parliament, beating Schembri by a slim 15-vote majority. District 13 The PN seat up for grabs in the 13th district, which is made up of Gozo, was won by EPP press ad- viser David Stellini, who will be taking the seat vacated by Mar- these Portelli. Seven candidates contested the district which was decided after five counts. Stellini led from the start, and ultimately collected 1,626 votes. The closest con- tenders were Kevin Cutajar with 1,431 votes and Ryan Mercieca with 1,151 votes. How do casual elections work? When a candidate decides to resign his seat in parliament, the party can elect another candidate who ran on the same district and was not elected. The electorate does not vote again, candidates are elected by re-opening the votes of the general election in the district. Once candidates nominate themselves for the casual election, counting agents take all of the votes won by the resigning candidate, and dividing among those contesting the casual election based on the preference of the voters. With all candidates starting from a zero-vote count, a large number of first time votes in the general election does not give the candidate an advantage in the general election, although it is indicative of the candidate's popularity among constituents. In addition to the popularity of a candidate, the result of a casual election is also dependent on agreements made between candidates who might have directed constituents to give their first preference vote to them and their second to a specific candidate. Another significant factor is a candidate's surname, which is listed alphabetically. In many cases voters will give their preference to a particular candidate, before proceeding to vote for all of a party's remaining candidates, starting from the top. This gives candidates at the top of the list an advantage over those at the bottom. News At one point Stefan Buontempo and Andy Ellul had an equal number of votes leading to three recounts on the fourth district