Arnold Cassola says casual election bid was 'not worth it'
Momentum chairperson says Malta’s voting culture continues to favour Labour and Nationalist candidates
Arnold Cassola chose not to contest casual elections held on Friday and Tuesday because it was “not worth it” given the number of votes he received.
Casual elections are held to fill seats vacated by candidates elected from two electoral districts. The casual elections for the Labour seats were held on Friday and those for the PN on Tuesday. During the process, the ballots of the successful candidates are opened and the second and other preferences are handed to other candidates until one is elected. Cassola had been seen by some as possibly being in with a chance through the inheritance of votes from the PN's candidates in the 10th electoral district
Cassola, chairperson of Momentum, received 1,016 votes by the last count in that district. However, he said he did not think contesting the casual election was worth the effort.
He explained that in District 10, the PN put in a record number of candidates to prevent the transfer as much as possible.
There were 16 candidates, significantly more than Momentum’s two candidates, Cassola and Pierre Schembri Wismayer. In 2022, the PN had 10 candidates, while in 2017, it had nine.
The Labour Party had 15 candidates.
He said many voters were dissuaded from even considering voting for a third party. He also believed that he did not receive enough transfer votes in part because of “the unethical appeal” by Alex Borg for people not to "experiment" with third parties during his speech at the final PN mass meeting in Luxol before the election.
“The indoctrination to only vote red or blue, with people actively being told by the larger parties not to vote third party, was more than just unfair.”
Cassola said the result ultimately came down to numbers. Although he received 795 votes on the first count, it was still not enough by the final round to reach the number he needed.
He said he would have considered running in the casual election had he received 1,500 votes in the last count.
For context, PN candidate, Graziella Attard Previ took Mark Anthony Sammut’s seat in the casual election. During the general election, she received 639 first-count votes but ended with 1,570 votes by the last count.
In 2022, then ADPD leader Carmel Cacopardo submitted his nomination for a casual election to fill the council seat vacated by former Nationalist mayor Albert Buttigieg, who had been elected an MP although his pitch ultimately failed.
Cassola, however, remained hopeful.
“One day it will happen that people will learn that this system does not benefit them and they will change this mentality,” he said.