Independent MEP candidate Conrad Borg Manché announced he only spent around €1,600 on his election campaign.

To put this figure into perspective, independent candidate Arnold Cassola spent €22,333 over the course of his campaign, mainly on adverts, billboards, and promotional material costs. No other candidate has released their campaign costs.

Borg Manché confirmed his campaign expenditure in an interview with Ricky Caruana, shortly after winning 5,936 first-count votes at last weekend’s European Parliament election.

“No one had even known I was going to contest in advance either, because I only announced it after I submitted my nomination,” he said.

Although Borg Manché was coy about his own political future, he pointed out that 5,936 votes is significant, particularly considering he didn’t have the support of party structures or the exposure of other candidates.

And crunching the numbers, he pointed out that all non PNPL candidates combined won a total of 33,000 votes, not far away at all from the quota needed to elect an MEP.