When loyalty is rewarded – thank you, Districts 2 and 9

Last week, the Electoral Commission convened the by-elections of those candidates who ceded their seat as a result of being elected in two districts for the PL. In my case, I had three by-elections, the seats vacated by Dr Clifton Grima and Dr Michael Falzon in the ninth district, as well as the seat vacated by the Prime Minister in the second district.

The system functions in such a way that, in a by-election, all candidates who fall during the counting process start from zero if the candidate ceding the seat was elected with no inherited votes from other candidate, irrespective of their first preference votes given to them by the electorate. Moreover, the reachable quota is half the official quota in the district plus one. The system is somewhat complex because, in the case of the seat vacated by Dr Grima, all candidates started at zero, and the same applied to that of the Prime Minister. However, if the ninth district had been counted before the second district, I would have started with 340 votes that I had transferred to Dr Falzon before my name fell on the day of the counting. This is a tricky part, and I would like to explain it further. On the day of the casual election, the Electoral Commission, in agreement with the Party’s representatives, follows a draw. It is literally like a Super Five chance. The order in which the districts of those who ceded their seats are counted is determined by sheer luck.

In my case, the first counting started with the seat vacated by Dr Grima, in which Rebecca Buttigieg was elected ahead of me with almost 90 votes. Then the second district followed, which was the seat vacated by the Prime Minister. In this case, I was not expecting to be elected after a few counts because the strategy employed during my campaign was to ask for the third and fourth preferences of other co-candidates rather than the second preference. The reason was that the first preference was always expected to be given to the Prime Minister, and the second preference to candidates who had toured and worked the district longer than I had. However, the game changer was the third and fourth preferences, which I asked many of my supporters and people on the ground to give me for an eventual by-election. And those were the third preferences of Ministers Clyde Caruana, Byron Camilleri and others. Indeed, the strategy worked, as I managed to garner most of the third preferences of the other candidates, in addition to extra second preferences after the Prime Minister. When the by-election of the Prime Minister opened, I was at around 1,250 votes. In the final count, I was elected from the second district, taking the seat vacated by the Prime Minister. Indeed, I am humbled.

After the second district was counted, the ninth district ensued. Obviously, my name was eliminated from the ninth district since I had already been elected on the second district. This opened the space for other candidates, in particular the mayor of Għargħur, Mariah Meli, who was the runner-up. If the ninth district following the by-election of Dr Falzon had been drawn to be counted before the second district, the story would have been different. Why? Because I would have been elected from the ninth district, while in the second district there would have been another name, given that my name would have been eliminated from the second district. Therefore, in truth, luck does favour you in such instances. This process is somewhat complex, and for this reason strategies differ from one candidate to another. In my case, since I submitted my nomination as a PL candidate later than others, it was not easy to compete in a district known for the big names. However, given that my profile and branding were already public due to the MEP elections campaign two years earlier, people seemed to have responded and voted for me as well, even if they were third and fourth preference. In truth, in the MEP elections I had around 36,000 second and third preferences and leveraged on this. Besides, I kept on listening to people’s concerns over the past two years and tried my best to assist where it was merited.

Certainly, I must thank the people who helped me achieve this result in just 21 days. We were a small group of volunteers across both the second and ninth districts. I did not even have an office when I submitted my nomination. In fact, we met at a restaurant in Marsaskala to devise a plan on how we would proceed with the campaign. Gradually, people started joining the team. We managed to achieve remarkable results in 21 days, even setting up my office in Bormla, which I own and which had been in a bit of a dilapidated state for two years. Thanks to my brother and a childhood friend, we completed it in a week. I must express sincere gratitude to several people, especially three close friends in the ninth district who truly supported me, and together we managed to garner around 562 first-count votes in that district. The people of the ninth district received me with enthusiasm, and that is something I truly cherish. It is a district that I will continue to represent for the next five years, just like the second district.

Lastly, I would like to make an appeal to those who were not elected. I firmly believe that you still have a lot to contribute. Had I given up after the MEP elections, I would not be here today. It is true that I was not originally planning to run for the current general election, and it is equally true that I was in the background supporting the PL. However, when the Prime Minister asked me several times to put forward my name as a candidate, I accepted. In the end, when the Party calls, we all contribute. Whether we contribute as frontline candidates, in logistics, customer care, or social media, we all play a role. And that is what truly matters. Your contribution is certainly valuable.