Updated 12.50pm
Gavin Gulia, the Labour Party’s preferred candidate, was on Tuesday elected to fill the seat vacated by now Central Bank governor Edward Scicluna.
On the first count, the chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority garnered 1,486 of the votes cast. The other candidates - Charles Azzopardi and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, obtained 1,028 and 1,479 respectively.
Once Azzopardi was eliminated and his votes distributed among Gulia and Pullicino Orlando, the former emerged the winner with 2,216 votes against the latter's 1,750.
Decades-long political history
Gulia currently serves as chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority – a role he was first handed in 2013 following Labour’s return to power.
In brief comments given to journalists at the Naxxar counting hall, Gulia indicated that he would now be relinquishing his MTA position, although he did not say when he intended to do that.
Gulia's political pedigree stretches back decades.
First elected to parliament in 1996, the lawyer and onetime Żebbuġ councillor served as parliamentary secretary for the self-employed under Prime Minister Alfred Sant and was subsequently promoted to Justice Minister in late January 1998 after Charles Mangion resigned for having recommended a prisoner’s pardon without cabinet's prior approval.
Gulia’s stint as a minister was a short-lived one, however, with the Labour Party returning to the Opposition benches in September that year after losing a snap election.
The Żebbuġ lawyer remained in politics and held onto his seat in parliament until 2013, when he failed to get elected.
His return to parliament following Tuesday's casual election is a boon to the Labour Party, which was hoping either Gulia or Pullicino Orlando would beat Azzopardi - a party outcast who Times of Malta revealed is a paid-up Nationalist Party member - to the seat.
Sources said that Gulia was the Labour Party's favoured candidate among the three.