[WATCH] It could have been worse... Arrigo says of PN’s worst ever electoral defeat

The Nationalist Party deputy leader said that considering all that has happened since Adrian Delia’s election, the PN could have suffered a worse defeat

Nationalist Party deputy leader Robert Arrigo said that when considering some of the polling before the election, the PN did not suffer a bad drubbing
Nationalist Party deputy leader Robert Arrigo said that when considering some of the polling before the election, the PN did not suffer a bad drubbing

Nationalist Party deputy leader Robert Arrigo has insisted that what appears to be the largest electoral loss since independence wasn’t the worst result the party could have registered in yesterday's MEP election.  

Some two hours after counting agents started checking votes, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced on state television that it appeared as though Labour had obtained 55% of the vote, with the PN pulling in 37%. Muscat said Labour was likely to win a fourth seat at the European Parliament.

Asked for his reaction, and about whether the PN was projecting a similar result, Arrigo said the PN’s numbers were telling a “slightly different story” and would need to wait a bit longer before confirming the actual number.

“But if the Prime Minister spoke in this way, I assume he has information we don’t,” he added.

He went on to say that despite being a largest ever electoral loss since Malta gained independence, the result could have been much worse.

“If it is 45,000 thousand it is far lower than some of the projections we saw before the election. Some sections of the media were at a point projecting a 100,000-vote difference. That would have been a real drubbing,” Arrigo said.

He said: “considering that you had a new administration come in half-way through this legislature and all the situations that were created, the PN didn’t do badly”.

“I’m not happy, I would have liked a smaller margin and I would have liked us to keep the third seat but the people - those of them who bothered to vote, because there were almost 100,000 who didn’t – I think the PN wasn’t destroyed.”