Updated 4pm with swearing in
Ian Castaldi Paris on Wednesday morning won the casual election between two Labour candidates for the parliamentary seat vacated by former Economic Services Minister Chris Cardona. He was sworn in as a member of parliament in the afternoon.
The other candidate was Rachel Tua.
Vote-counting was held at Naxxar counting hall. The Lija notary won by 2,286 votes to Tua's 1,300.
In initial comments, Castaldi Paris said he will resign from posts he occupies as chairman of Identity Malta and a director of Air Malta to focus on his role as an MP.
The fact that he started politics in the PN showed that the Labour Party was open to everyone, he added.
Cardona, who is still Labour deputy leader for party affairs, resigned on April 30 following a 24-year parliamentary career.
His resignation triggered the casual election on the eighth district where all Labour candidates who contested the 2017 general election were elected bar Castaldi Paris and Tua.
A former mayor of Lija, Castaldi Paris defected from the Nationalist Party to Labour in 2015. In the 2017 election he had obtained 232 first-count votes.
Rachel Tua, - a lawyer and a former Labour Party equal opportunities officer - had obtained 174 first-count votes.
The vote-counting took place manually, with the counting agents wearing visors to protect them from COVID-19.
Under the Maltese electoral system, a candidate in a casual election must win most preferences from among the ballots of the MP relinquishing his seat.
Cardona had been the last candidate from the five to be elected from this district, with 3,686 votes. Though he had not reached the quota, he had been elected as all other candidates had been eliminated.
In a statement, the Labour Party congratulated Castaldi Paris following his election.
In a short speech following his swearing in, Castaldi Paris thanked his constituents and expressed his determination to be of service to the people. “This is a new experience which I cherish and I look forward to start contributing,” he said.
He thanked Cardona for his service during his 24-year parliamentary career, and his opponent Tua with whom he contested the casual election.