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[LIVE] Election Day: Voting in Malta comes to an end with prospect of lowest turnout ever
Polling stations across Malta and Gozo close at 10pm • Electoral Commission revises 2pm turnout to 44.8%, 8 points lower than 2017 • Election result will be known on Sunday morning
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Prime Minister Robert Abela, seen here with spouse Lydia, is seeking his first electoral mandate after taking the Labour leadership in 2020. Photo: James Bianchi
Malta has voted and the result will be known on Sunday morning as attention now shifts to the counting hall in Naxxar.
Polling stations opened at 7am and closed at 10pm. Election day brought to an end a short 33-day campaign with well over 340,552 voters eligible to cast their votes on Saturday.
Official turnout figures until 2pm showed that 44.8% of the electorate had voted, a decline of eight points over the 2017 election.
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Opposition leader Bernard Grech cast his vote in Mosta
The campaign is fought mostly between the Labour Party, led by Prime Robert Abela, and the Nationalist Party, led by Opposition leader Bernard Grech.
Abela took over as PM after winning a party leadership battle with deputy prime minister Chris Fearne, after the disgraced exit of his predecessor, Joseph Muscat, in the wake of the arrest of magnate Yorgen Fenech.
Grech was himself the winner of a party leadership contest with predecessor Adrian Delia, who suffered a backbench rebellion in mid-2020. Delia, a backbench MP, is contesting on the eighth district.
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Prime Minister Robert Abela cast his vote in Marsaskala. Photo: James Bianchi
Adding to the PL (69 candidates), PN (70 candidates) and ADPD (10 candidates) – the merger of Green Party Alternattiva Demokratika with Partit Demokratiku – is Christian-conservative party ABBA (14 candidates), the far-right Partit Popolari (8 candidates), progressive pan-European formation Volt Malta (2 candidates) and four independent candidates.
A total of 177 candidates will be competing for 65 constituency seats, with ‘bonus’ seats being added to reflect the overall first preference votes for the party that wins a majority.
In 2021, parliament approved a new law that allows up to 12 extra seats to be awarded to the under-represented gender. However, this mechanism will only apply if two political parties are elected to parliament.
And the Constitutional Court has upheld an appeal filed by independent candidate Arnold Cassola and ordered the continuation of a case in which he is challenging the gender quota because mechanism kicks in only if two political parties are represented in parliament.
The new gender mechanism kicks in after the election process concludes and all MPs are known – even those elected in casual elections. The Electoral Commission determines if any gender representation falls below 40%. This is very likely to be women. In this case, extra seats are awarded to either side of the House to be filled by unelected women candidates in a bid to reach the 40% threshold. However, the extra seats are capped at 12 – six for either side.
This is the 13th election since Malta gained its Independence.
With 355,025 registered voters, a total of 14,473 voting documents remained uncollected – 4.1% of all eligible votes – almost double that of the 2.4% registered in 2017, and 2% in 2013.
The 12th district, comprised of Naxxar, St Paul’s Bay, and Mellieha, had the highest number of uncollected voting documents – 2,529 (8.95%).
The second highest number of uncollected documents was in the 10th district, comprised of Gżira, part of Naxxar and Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, Pembroke, and St Julian’s, where 1,876 (7%) documents remained uncollected.
Malta will have 742 ballot boxes at 116 different polling stations across the islands.
After the boxes are sealed and taken to the Naxxar counting hall, the counting staff will start the rigorous exercise of turning the ballot sheets face down.
After voting closes at 10pm, ballot boxes will start being taken to the Naxxar counting hall, at which point ballot reconciliation is carried out. The voter turnout will be known at around 2-3am.
Due to the new electronic counting system for votes, the unofficial winning party will be declared at around 10am, but candidates elected on each district will no longer be known - the traditional pigeonhole system will no longer be used.
The official result will also be published early on Monday morning.
Turnout for 2pm could be as high as 44.8% after the Nationalist Party's electoral office Elcom informed the Electoral Commission that its data has erroneously ignored the ballots for early voting.
Early voting took place in the week preceding the 26 March.
The PN said the total number of voters that the Electoral Commission said had cast their ballot by 2pm, 143,628, did not include the 15,289 electors who cast their ballot in the days before.
That would raise the 2pm turnout from 40% to 44.8% of Malta's registered 355,075 voters.
We did say that the stay-at-home protest vote in 2022 may yet be a stronger factor political parties will have to contend with in the years ahead.
MaltaToday’s rolling survey projected that the share of valid votes cast would be 86.9% as of Friday. This works out at a turnout of around 88.1%, a full four points less than the last election.
Valid votes cast are the basis on which an election is determined since invalid votes are ignored.
In 2017, while 92.1% of eligible voters went out to vote, only 90.9% of eligible voters cast a valid vote.
The share of invalid votes since 2003 has averaged at around 1.2 points. If this is replicated, the survey numbers suggest that in 2022 the turnout would be in the region of 88%.
The MaltaToday survey has shown an improvement in the turnout figure since the start of the electoral campaign, suggesting that the political parties’ get-out-the-vote efforts are reaping some results.
On 27 February, the MaltaToday survey projected the share of valid votes at 84% (estimated turnout of 85.2%), rising to 86.9% (turnout of 88.1%) four weeks later.
However, the numbers still suggest a lower turnout than five years ago and the first sign of what we could expect came on Saturday when early voting was possible for those who cannot vote on 26 March.
According to the Electoral Commission, from 9,658 voters eligible to vote early, 8,224 cast their vote on Saturday. This equates to 85.2%, almost six points less than five years ago when the turnout for early voters stood at 91%.
Approximate percentage voting turnout in the General Election up until 2.00 pm:
Registered voters: 355,075
Votes cast: 143,628
Average total approximate percentage: 40.45%
PN leader Bernard Grech has paid visits to the PN clubs in Naxxar, San Gwann, and Sliema…
“The Electoral Commission reminds the public that on Saturday, 26th March, 2022, the voting hours are between 7.00 am and 10.00 pm without interruption. Voters are to attend at the polling centre address indicated on their voting document.
“Ten voters who are able to vote without assistance are to enter into the Polling Booth for every voter who needs assistance to vote from the Assistant Electoral Commissioners.
“The Electoral Commission also notifies that every person who impedes or prevents the free exercise of a voter’s right to vote in these elections shall be guilty of an offence according to Law.”