Malta: Labor claim victory in legislative elections
As announced by the polls, Robert Abela indicated to the television channel TVM that his party had won the majority of the votes, without however providing a quantified result (archive image).
POOL/AFP/Archivos
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The outgoing Prime Minister in Malta, candidate of the Labor Party, claimed victory in the legislative elections on Sunday March 27 after a ballot held in the shadow of the war in Ukraine and marked by a record abstention in the history of the small Mediterranean archipelago.
Advertising
Read more
As announced by the polls, Robert Abela indicated to the TVM television channel that his party had won the majority of the votes, without however providing a numerical result.
While the participation rate usually exceeds 90%, it should be around 85% according to the Electoral Commission, a historically low level since the independence in 1964 of Malta, a former British colony which entered the EU in 2004.
In the city of Naxxar, where the counting of ballots is being held – out of 355,000 registered voters – Labor activists were exulted at the announcement of the preliminary results, AFP journalists noted.
►
To read also:
Malta: what are the challenges of the legislative elections?
A mandate won at the ballot box
It would be the first mandate won at the polls for Mr. Abela, appointed head of government after the resignation in early 2020 of Joseph Muscat, whose mandate was marred by suspicions of corruption.
He was also accused of trying to influence the investigation into the 2017 murder of investigative journalist
Daphne Caruana Galizia
who worked on corruption.
It is also the first national election in which Maltese aged 16 to 18 can also vote.
Final results are not expected until Sunday evening or Monday morning, but the two parties that have contested power for decades, Labor and Nationalists, are relying on a reliable preliminary count.
(With
AFP
)
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Malta