Cuschieri takes sixth seat as Attard-Montalto comes from behind
The Labour Party yesterday claimed a fourth seat in the European Parliament, which will come into force if and when the Lisbon Treaty passes in the Irish referendum.
All six successful candidates in the European Parliament elections are now known, with Simon Busuttil and David Casa elected for the PN, and Louis Grech, Edward Scicluna, John Attard-Montalto and Joseph Cuschieri elected for Labour.
While Simon Busuttil was the first incumbent to be re-elected, the fate of the PN’s second seat was hanging in the balance when it seemed Labour would be electing its fourth MEP earlier than expected.
Nationalist incumbent David Casa was elected when he achieved some 15,000 surplus votes over the 41,000 quota with the elimination of Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas. His final vote was 56,517.
Tedesco Triccas ended up with an impressive vote count of 20,859, confirming the popularity of her candidature from the PN’s line-up.
It was a battle to the end for Labour candidate Marlene Mizzi, who was hoping to capitalise on the votes from the elimination of Claudette Abela Baldacchino.
But some 10,000 of the latter’s 16,167 votes went to Attard-Montalto – whose name featured right after Abela Baldacchino’s in the ballot sheet. Attard Montalto’s chances of being elected had been slim before the elimination of Abela Baldacchino.
Incumbent MEP Louis Grech and Edward Scicluna were top runners all throughout the race among the Labour candidates.
Although maintaining a high vote count from the very start, at 26,229 Joseph Cuschieri was yesterday trailing in fifth position by the time Casa was elected.
But upon the elimination of Marlene Mizzi, the bulk of her 23,000 votes were roughly split up between Edward Scicluna and Louis Grech. Attard-Montalto and Cuschieri got some 3,000 votes each from Mizzi. In the end, Attard-Montalto claimed fifth position by some 750 votes more than Cuschieri.
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