Update – Official Results
The official results of this election indicate that the Labour Party got 54.3%, while
the PN got 37.9% of the votes.
This translates in a gap of 42,656 votes.
Labour got 141,267 votes while PN got 98,611 votes.
PL
Miriam Dalli got 63,438 votes, followed by Alfred Sant 26,592 votes. Alex Agius Saliba got 18,808 and Josianne Cutajar got 15,603 votes.
Next in line were Cyrus Engerer (5,394) James Grech (2,530) and Josef Caruana (2,308).
PN
Roberta Metsola got 38,206 votes and David Casa got 20,493 votes. Next in line were Frank PSaila with 13,268, Peter Agius with 10,474 and Francis Zammit Dimech with5,782.
Others
Far-Right Imperium Europa candidate Norman Lowell got 8,355 votes. PD’s Camilla Appelgren got 3,053 votes (PD’s Party leader Godfrey Farrugia got 1,668 votes). Alternattiva Demokratika Leader got 1,021 votes.
From the independent candidates, Arnold Cassola got 2,127 votes.
Update: Opposition leader Adrian Delia
indicated that he will not resign in the face the defeat the Nationalist Party suffered in the European Parliament elections. Delia was reported saying “We are not going to abandon the road we have taken… we must meet more people, more social partners, more institutions, and civil society. We must understand their needs and how to represent them.” (MaltaToday)
“We accept this result with utmost humility and we promise that we are going to ponder the situation properly and learn the lessons we need to learn”, Delia said before thanking all those who had voted in the democratic process and all those who had stood as candidates in the election, irrespective of which side they stood for. The PN is still the second largest party, he said. (The Malta Independent)
Earlier Update: Government’s Head of Communications tweeted that the latest projections indicate a majority of close to 50,000 votes, stating that this possibly makes the Labour Party the biggest political party in Europe. According to TVM the PL now has 55% while the PN has 36.2%.
MaltaToday also refers to facebook post by statistician Dr Vincent Marmara, showing a 7.4% support for other parties, (mainly far-right party Imperium Ewropa). AD and PD are expected to garner close a collective of 1%. TVM quantifies Lowell’s vote at circa 15,000.
Update: Counting agents examining the tally of first count votes indicate that current MEP incumbents Roberta Metsola (PN), Alfred Sant and Miriam Dalli (PL) are to keep their seats in the European Parliament. (Malta Independent)
Alex Agius Saliba has been noted to be performing well while Josianne Cutajar is also being touted as a front-runner for the remaining two seats. Cutajar has been especially powered on by a good showing in her native Gozo which, as a district, tentatively seems to have gone to the Labour Party once again. (Malta Independent)
Incumbent MEP David Casa – who has been elected to the European Parliament since 2004 – is also performing well and has an advantage over Frank Psaila.
With regard to third parties, the initial projections seem to indicate that there are between 22,000 and 24,000 votes split between them. Agents within the counting hall seemed to indicate that Norman Lowell’s Imperium Ewropa and the Partit Demokratiku are performing best out of the non-main parties. Lowell, however, seems to have the edge over PD for now, with especially good showings in localities such as Marsa, Birzebbuga and St. Paul’s Bay – localities which have been experiencing more racial tensions than others in the past months. (Malta Independent)
Update: Prime Minister Joseph Muscat thanked supporters for giving Labour its 10th successive victory, saying the margin was unprecedented. Speaking from the balcony of party headquarters he said the Labour majority had grown to 48,000 votes so far, making it a bigger victory than the general election. The result, he said, was down to party unity. It also imposed a heavy responsibility and he would continue to ensure that the government remained rooted to the ground. The government, he promised, would not be arrogant. (Times of Malta)
Update: The Nationalist Party Secretary General Clyde Puli said that the vast win for the Labour Party still augurs well for the party’s future. “Let’s not forget that during this past year, surveys suggested that the PN might lose by 88,000 votes or 75,000 votes. This hasn’t happened and the result is very similar to that of the last general election,” Puli told NET TV.
Puli confirmed that Sunday’s result will likely mean that the PN would lose its third seat in the European Parliament. He added that the 2014 MEP elections saw the PN winning its third seat via inheritance votes, but that this time, this possibility is remote. “The PN didn’t just come out of a massive electoral defeat in the last general election but the aftermath of that as well: anxieties, concerns and narratives of how the party was split in two. The party will take lessons from this result because the people have spoken but after the PN’s modest electoral campaign, the result showed that the PN has been consolidated,” Puli said. (MaltaToday)
Earlier Update: “Together we’ve written the history of this country; there has never been any party or movement that achieved what was done in this election, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this afternoon.
Speaking at the Labour Party headquarters in Hamrun, before a massive crowd that gathered to celebrate Labour’s win in the EP election, Muscat said that the result showed that “what unites us is firmly larger than that which divides us”, and that people want unity, not division.
The Prime Minister said that he had to admit to making the mistake of saying that the Labour Party won with the same majority as the general election, but in reality the victory is bigger. Labour has won with 48,000 votes with a 56% of the votes cast. (Malta Independent)
Earlier Update : Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced on PBS that Labour has obtained 55% of the votes according to the projections, meaning a 45,000 margin over the PN, or a 17% difference from the PN.
The PM said that the people voted in a very clear way. He says that this is a historic victory. It is clear that the Labour Party has won its fourth seat.
Speaking on One News, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that the PL victory exceeds the largest victory that had been obtained by Labour, in 1947, when it had won by 44,104 votes, with a 59.9%.
PN deputy leader Robert Arrigo said that based on the first count, the Labour Party had won a clear majority, probably around 54 to 55% while the small parties seemed to have registered 5% of the vote. (Via The Independent)
Earlier Update : Indications and sources close to those engaged in the electoral process within the political parties at the Counting Hall show that the Labour Party (Partit Laburista) S&D garnered 56% of the votes. This is based on the projections from the sampling taken in the screening and counting process. The Nationalist Party, (Partit Nazzjonalista PPE) fathered a 37% of the votes.
The result is still to be confirmed, however the projections available indicate this result. This is also confirmed by the body language shown by the key people in the counting hall.
Meanwhile the Malta Independent and TVM report that the gap translates in 54,000 votes.
Earlier Update : MaltaToday and the Malta Independent report that Labour sources are projecting a 56% win according to initial observations on sampled ballots, fourth seat for Labour looking likely.
MEP Elections – The Electoral Commission is actually 72.6% rather than 70.12% as previously stated.
The turnout published by the Electoral Commission confirm the trend of decline every election, since the first in 2004.
Local Council Elections – 60.4%
Projections
On Saturday, May 25th POLITICO has published a projection indicating the the following outcome:
Partit Laburista 57.75%
Partit Nazzjonalista 38.63%
Imperium Europa 1.6%
Alternattiva Demokratika 1.4%
Partit Demokratiku 0.77%
This projects itself in 4 seats for the Partit Laburista (S&D) and 2 seats for the Partit Nazzjonalista (PN)
POLITICO predicts that the PL will win by 48,152 votes, based on a turnout of 74.8%.
These polls are close to the polls carried by Dr Vincent Marmara for It-Torċa, which gave the PL a 56.9% and the PN a 37.3%.
Other polls in the run up to the election where carried by MISCO for The Sunday Times and MaltaToday. The MISCO poll gave the PL a 55% and the PN 40%, while Malta Today gave the PL a 41.3% and the PN a 27.9%. The MISCO poll gave ‘other parties’ 3.4% (POLITICO gave 4%).
The Financial Times, poll aggregator and average indicated PL a 56.5% and PN a 39%. Others were also set at 3.4%. (15th May)
Turnout at 1400h
The Electoral Commission has said that the approximate percentage voting turnout for the European Parliamentary elections stood at 31.99% as at 2pm.
This means around 2% less than last European Parliament elections, held 5 years ago when the election turnout stood at 33.8%. The final turnout was 74.8%.
First District: 36.80%
Second District: 34.98%
Third District: 31.39%
Fourth District: 35.28%
Fifth District: 31.87%
Sixth District: 33.61%
Seventh District: 31.62%
Eighth District: 34.45%
Ninth District: 31.14%
Tenth District: 29.60%
Eleventh District: 30.80%
Twelfth District: 26.80%
Thirteenth District: 31.29%
CD
