Gozitan Ryan Mercieca said on Tuesday he has submitted his nomination for the casual election being held on the 13th district as a “sign of respect to his voters and his love for Gozo”.

Mercieca, who contested the last general election as a PN candidate, is now an independent after the Nationalist Party on Sunday dissociated with him.

The seat on the 13th district became available following the death of PN MP Frederick Azzopardi.

The PN said on Sunday it met with urgency to discuss Mercieca on the previous day and decided he had failed to give a satisfactory explanation to serious accusations made against him.

In an incident within the corridors of the law courts in January 2017, Joseph Camilleri, the treasurer of the Gozo NGOs Association, had allegedly been the target of menacing words uttered by Mercieca.

Mercieca said on Tuesday that no attack will diminish his belief that the people’s judgment was sovereign and he will respect the democratic process.

He said nothing could tarnish his reputation and the allegations he had rebutted repeatedly were being repeated.

Ethics of high standard, he said, were required by all and his nomination was submitted on behalf of all victims of injustice.

“Politics are made by discussing ideas of how to elevate society and not by creating conjectures to exclude people,” he said.

In a separate statement, the Electoral Commission said the election will also be contested by Joseph Ellis, Ċensu Galea, Maria Portelli and Jason Zammit.

The election is being held on Thursday.