Labour Minister Anton Refalo is leaving no stone unturned to ensure his 19-year-old daughter, Simona, is elected to the Xewkija local council and possibly become the locality’s mayor for the next five years.

Using a strategy of ‘populating’ Simona’s electoral base by urging his canvassers and extended family to transfer their identity cards to Xewkija, the veteran minister set an example himself by placing all his family members at different addresses in Xewkija.

This comes in the wake of the scandal of 99 voters forced to make false declarations of living in social housing units in Siggiewi that had not yet been completed – a move to strengthen Labour’s base ahead of the local council elections in a highly contested locality.

According to his latest declaration of assets, Minister Refalo lives with his family in a villa in Qala. Yet, his vote for the upcoming elections was issued on a dwelling in Xewkija, which he owns but is not his residence.

His son, Andre, 21, who takes care of the family’s recently opened yoga hotel, is registered as living in an uninhabitable flat in Xewkija’s Triq l-Imġarr.

Refalo’s wife, Michelina, and her daughter contesting the elections are also suddenly registered to vote in Xewkija, registered as living in another property in Triq it-Torri.

As a result, the four members of the minister’s family appear to live in three different addresses when, in reality, they all live together in Qala. Their real residence is the same villa in which the stolen Victoria-era marker was discovered.

When asked to explain how it was possible for his four-member family to be declared to live in three different addresses, Minister Refalo failed to reply.

Sources who spoke to The Shift estimated that some 100 voters, including canvassers and the minister’s relatives, will now vote in Xewkija despite living elsewhere.

The Shift has confirmed that some residents of Xewkija refused to accept voting documents from the police, informing them that some registered at their home addresses did not live with them. They told The Shift they had filed police reports.

Xewkija is a traditional Labour stronghold in Gozo. In the last elections in 2019, Labour got 70% of the votes, with Hubert Saliba declared mayor with 430 first-count votes. He has turned down Labour’s invitation to contest again.

Simona Refalo, 19, a law student, is contesting the elections for the first time.

She is being groomed by her 67-year-old father to eventually take his seat in parliament, possibly after the next general elections.

Anton Refalo is the oldest member of Robert Abela’s Cabinet and has been returned to parliament in every election since 1987.