Election History Bites | Valid votes signal Malta’s election love affair

Elections are somewhat a historical national hobby, reflected in the significant number of valid votes cast in every election since 1921. Valid votes are calculated as a percentage of registered voters.

Indeed, between 1971 and 2017, valid votes surpassed the 90% mark in each and every election. This is somewhat of a global phenomenon in the democratic world since voting is not even compulsory in Malta.

However, the 1987 general election stands out as the one with the highest-ever percentage of valid votes cast—95.5%. It was arguably one of the most heated elections, at least in post-independence Malta, coming at the very end of a politically turbulent legislature that culminated in the murder of Nationalist activist Raymond Caruana in Gudja in December 1986.

The election was won by the PN, which thanks to a constitutional amendment introduced months prior to avoid a repeat of the 1981 result, was granted additional seats to have a one-seat majority in parliament.

In the Maltese context, the last election in 2022 came as a shock since the percentage of valid votes dropped to 83.2%, the lowest since 1955. Nonetheless, when compared to other European countries, Malta remained an outlier for its high electoral participation and is likely to remain so even this year.

Election History Bites powered by Agenda Bookshop is a series of election-inspired stories that will be published from Monday to Friday every morning throughout the election campaign