Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/850837
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post PAGE 9 • Editorial FULL REPORT ON PAGE 6 WEDNESDAY • 19 JULY 2017 • ISSUE 547 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY YANNICK PACE FORMER PN MP Francis Zammit Di- mech will be taking up the seat vacated by Therese Comodini Cachia at the European Parliament. He obtained 15,455 votes, ahead of second placed Norman Vella, who col- lected 13,013 votes. In comments after his election, Zam- mit Dimech "hum- bly" thanked all those who had voted for him, while thank- ing Comodini Cachia for her work at the European Parliament over the past years. "This is a new very important chap- ter for me in my political life, and one I am looking forward to with the greatest sense of determination, enthusiasm and service towards the nation," said Zammit Dimech. The veteran politician added that he was looking forward to working with his colleagues at the European Parliament, especially Nationalist MEPs Roberta Metsola and David Casa. Asked whether this "new chapter" would also be his last, Zammit Dimech said in politics it was "very difficult to determine in many cases, which was the first or last chapter". "The important thing is that one goes from one chapter to the next feeling youthful and full of energy on the inside, irrespective of the age," said Zammit Di- mech. The casual election got underway at 8.30am, with Raymond Bugeja, Kevin Cutajar, Helga Ellul, Jonathan Shaw, Nor- man Vella and Zammit Dimech all v ying for Comodini Cachia's seat. Zammit Dimech was clearly the favour- ite to win once the votes started being sorted, as his pile of votes was visibly larger than any of the other candidates'. In fact, after the first count Zammit Di- mech had obtained 10,719, some 4,000 votes short of the quota, with the closest two competitors being journalist Nor- man Vella and businessman Ray Bugeja with 5,557 and 4,635 votes respectively. The winner was determined after Co- modini Cachia's 29,580 votes were dis- tributed amongst the candidates accord- ing to the voters' preferences. PAGE3 Claudio Grech says 'no' to PN leadership bid A report by the National Audit Office concluded that the failure to apply planning policies on the expropriation of the land at Fekruna Bay in St Paul's Bay resulted in an adverse impact of €1.12 million. MIRIAM DALLI NATIONALIST MP Claudio Grech, whom many have described as a po- tential replacement for Simon Busut- til, will not be contesting the PN leadership election. The news was confirmed by Grech himself, bringing to an end weeks of waiting as PN supporters, MPs and exponents waited for Grech to throw his hat into the ring. "This wasn't easy. But after due consideration, I shall not be contesting as I feel I need to gain more front-line po- litical experience to be an ideal candidate for the PN leadership. Although I've been literally brought up in the PN, this was merely my second elec- tion with only four years as an MP," Grech said in a lengthy Facebook post. Nominations for the election close tomorrow. The three candidates so far are Adrian Delia, Chris Said and Alex Perici Calascione. Grech described the encourage- ment he received over the last weeks as "overwhelming", and difficult to describe. "I was raised in the PN. As a small child I ran around in the maze of the Stamperija cor- ridors, at a time when living your political beliefs was difficult. I was brought up to love what the PN stands for, embrace the vision it had for our country and the values it fought for. PAGE 8 Francis Zammit Dimech elected to European Parliament