Alex Borg’s decision to retain Gozo seat ruined young candidate’s Parliamentary prospects

Former Nationalist Party candidate Luke Said has suggested that the PN was reluctant to fully embrace his candidacy because of his outspoken environmental positions, admitting that party officials appeared uncertain about how to handle his profile during the electoral campaign.

In comments reported by The Times of Malta, the 22-year-old scientist and activist said he felt the PN was cautious about promoting him due to his progressive views, particularly on environmental issues.

“As someone who is quite progressive and vocal, I did stick out slightly,” Luke Said was quoted by the news portal as saying.

In his own words, Said, who contested the Gozo district, described himself as “a gamble” for the PN.

“I think even the party itself didn’t know what to do with me or whether they saw me as an asset or not,” he said.

The comments offer a glimpse into internal dynamics within the Nationalist Party, particularly regarding environmental issues that have increasingly generated public debate in Gozo, while also applying party rules only where it suits.

Despite being actively involved in drafting the PN’s Gozo manifesto and participating in campaign events, the young candidate said said he believed he received insufficient media exposure compared to other candidates.

Said, whose science background evidently did not fit the mould of the typical PN political candidate, was one of five PN candidates contesting the Gozo district. Only Said and Norma Camilleri failed to win seats.

But what dampened Luke Said’s prospects of forming part of the the PN’s parliamentary group was PN leader Alex Borg’s breach of his own party’s statute after Borg failed to give up his Gozo seat.

Alex Borg’s move effectively blocked Luke Said’s Parliamentary chances, something Luke Said saw coming. Alex Borg’s decision to retain his 13th District parliamentary seat had not gone down well among party insiders.

Borg’s decision to keep his Gozo seat relied on a legal loophole in the PN’s own statute. The party’s rules require MPs elected in two districts to vacate one with lowest votes as a percentage of a quota. Borg obtained a higher percentage on the 12th district, meaning the rules would ordinarily have required him to drop Gozo.

However, the PN defended Borg’s decision, that because the party leader is not formally approved as a candidate by the executive committee, while other candidates are subject to a formal approval, the statute does not apply to him in the same way.

Critics have called this a “legal fiction” that goes against the spirit of the rules and a case of two weights two measures.