Cyrus Engerer has been elected to replace Miriam Dalli as MEP with 32,918 votes in the casual election held on Thursday.

In his first comments, he said he hoped to continue working in his predecessor's footsteps, and listed the environment, climate change and public health among his priority areas.

The casual election took place after Dalli resigned her seat in the European Parliament to be coopted to the Maltese Parliament, filling the seat vacated by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Asked what he intends to do to improve Malta's reputation in Brussels, the newly-elected MEP said all six Maltese MEPS need to work together.

"We can debate and argue here in Malta. It's good that we challenge each other. But at an EU level we need to be more united," he said.

Engerer said he will also continue to work on civil liberties and equal rights, issues that have been close to his heart since the start of his political career.

Engerer, a former Nationalist politician switched to Labour in 2011 during the divorce referendum and was a former chairperson of the Maltese Consultative Council on LGBTIQ rights.

He ran for the European election in 2014 but withdrew his candidacy when he was found guilty of distributing pornography and was handed a two-year suspended sentence. 

After serving as a special envoy in Brussels for Muscat, Engerer stepped down to run for the 2019 MEP election. 

After Dalli stepped down, a casual election was held, using the countback procedure, where the votes of the former MEP were distributed to voters next preference.