It took some time to do the counting, but with each voter having to choose ten names from a list of 30 from the three parties, it’s hardly surprising the result took some hours to come, even if the total electorate in Gibraltar is only 21,712.
Turnout was a record high of 82.5% and the polls were confirmed as correct when the final result came in.
After some 15 and a half years in power 55 year old Peter Caruana, of the GSD, has been defeated by his 39 year old challenger, Fabián Picardo, and his coalition between Socialists and Liberals.
The Social Democrats of Caruana have ended up with seven seats while Picardo’s GSLP-LP has obtained ten seats. Yvette del Agua, Joe Holliday and Lianne Azzopardi are no longer in parliament. The official percentages were:
Alliance 48.88%, The GSD 46.76% and the PDP 4.36%.
The victor is a lawyer and studied at Oriel College at Oxford. He has concentrated on human rights cases and acts as a commercial lawyer for one of the largest and best known international firms in Gibraltar. He’s married and about to become a father. He’s also the grandson of a Spanish republican;
His grandmother arrived in Gibraltar after the Spanish Civil war, and then married a Gibraltarian. He benefitted by 1988 legislation on the Rock which granted their youngsters who wanted to, the possibility of studying in the U.K.
Departing Peter Caruana said that he left Gibraltar a better place after 15 years, and he congratulated Picardo ‘to this privileged office’. He offered him a full briefing on current issues and ended his speech with the words ‘God speed to you all’.
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