Turnout is 72.8%: Biggest drops in 6th and 8th districts as Gozo dominates polling day

Turnout highest in Gozo, with drops in the 6th and 8th districts compared to 2019 • Total turnout includes early voting numbers

Voting ballots from a previous election (File photo)
Voting ballots from a previous election (File photo)

There were 269,551 people who casted their vote in the European Parliament election on Saturday, with turnout for the entire election week reaching 72.82% of registered voters, according to the Electoral Commission.

From the total amount of registered voters, 81.03% collected their voting document.

Turnout was highest in Gozo, with a turnout of 73.95% and 24,193 votes cast. Meanwhile, turnout was lowest in the tenth district, a traditionally Nationalist district, at 56.33% or 16,861 votes cast.

Compared to 2019, the biggest drops in turnout were recorded in the sixth and eighth districts, although drops were recorded across all districts.

The Electoral Commission provided a district-by-district analysis of the turnout in terms of registered voters, as well as a total turnout in terms of both registered voters and people who collected their voting document. The total turnout was 72.82% and 81.03% respectively, both including early voting turnout.

In the middle of election day, the Electoral Commission announced for the first time that it had changed the way it calculates the voter turnout. This was explained only after the 2pm turnout was announced.

The turnout for the European Parliament election at 2pm was 42.6% according to the Electoral Commission. Similarly, the local council elections turnout at 2pm stood at 41.1%.

However, this figure includes early voting that took place over the past week. In previous years, the 2pm turnout figure did not include early voters.

On top of that, it appears that the figure was calculated differently from past elections, as the figures were based on the number of voters who collected their vote, instead of all eligible voters. 

In 2019, the turnout at 2pm stood at 32.3%, which was closer to the turnout in the 2014 election.