Rebecca Buttigieg and Randolph Debattista are to become Labour Party MPs, as a result of decisions made by the party regarding casual elections.
Buttigieg will enter parliament by virtue of a casual election held on the ninth district while Debattista will be co-opted into parliament after the party ran out of casual election candidates on that same district.
Buttigieg served as a communications coordinator within the Home Affairs Ministry in the last legislature while Debattista is editor of the party's English-language website The Journal.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Labour Party announced which districts will be subject to casual elections for its candidates, following a meeting of its executive.
The party listed the districts which candidates elected from two districts will be dropping. The decisions were taken by a secret vote, it said.
In which districts will PL hold casual elections?
The PL said in a statement that the party’s executive had decided the following:
Prime Minister Robert Abela, elected from the second and fifth district, will give up his seat on the latter.
Former health minister Chris Fearne will give up his seat on the fourth district after also being elected on the third one.
Clyde Caruana, co-opted into parliament by Abela’s administration was elected on the second and eighth districts. He will drop his seat on the second district.
Owen Bonnici will meanwhile drop his seat on the third and keep the one on the fifth district.
Ian Borg, elected on the sixth and seventh districts will drop his seat on the former district.
Silvio Schembri, also elected on these two districts will give up the seventh district seat.
Clifton Grima, elected on the ninth and tenth ones will drop the seat on district nine.
Miriam Dalli will drop the 11th district seat and retain the one on the fifth district.
Michael Falzon will meanwhile drop the seat on the ninth district and keep the one on the tenth.
Since Falzon and Grima will both give up their district nine seats and PL had only five candidates contesting that district, with two of the remaining three - Edward Zammit Lewis and Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi – being elected on other districts, Rebecca Buttigieg will be automatically promoted into parliament.
With no more candidates to fill the remaining vacant seat, Labour have the opportunity to co-opt a person of their choice into parliament.
Prime Minister and party leader nominated Debattista for that post, and that decision was endorsed by the party executive.
Both Buttigieg and Debattista published brief statements on Facebook following the news, in which they said they were honoured.
"I have no words to describe the joy I am feeling," Buttigieg wrote.