ADPD leader Carmel Cacopardo failed to get elected as a local councillor in St Julian’s during a casual election held on Monday to fill the seat vacated by former Nationalist mayor Albert Buttigieg, who was elected an MP.

This means that the Nationalist Party can now co-opt someone of their choice.

The Green party leader only got 30 votes from those who had voted for Buttigieg. He needed to reach the quota of 196 to get elected. 

Normally, only candidates from the party whose seat was vacated would submit a nomination to fill it through a casual election. However, all PN candidates who contested the 2019 local election were elected and there were no candidates who could contest the casual election.

Cacopardo noted while submitting his nomination last week that ADPD was a strong believer in cross-party voting, something allowed in the Malta voting system based on the single transferable vote.

He noted that during the council elections in 2019, of the votes cast for Buttigieg, 6.33% continued on candidates from other parties on the second count. This could continue in subsequent counts during the casual election.

In comments to Times of Malta following the casual election, Cacopardo said he was surprised that he got 30 votes as he had calculated he would get around half that amount.  

He said he felt duty-bound to contest even though he knew it would be difficult to get elected. 

He added that the result showed how cross party voting was still not engrained in the Maltese voters' mentality.