Around 43,600 votes for EP Elections uncollected, 117,000 for LC elections

More than 43,613 voting documents for the European Parliament elections and 117,333 for the local council elections remain uncollected, Chief Electoral Commissioner Joseph Camilleri announced during a press briefing held yesterday

The elections will be held on Saturday.

According to the Electoral Register, 370,184 people are eligible to vote in the European Parliament elections, down by almost 1,500 from the last round of these elections in 2019. The number of registered voters for the local council elections is 457,343, an increase of 23,000 from five years ago. The slight decrease in the EP election turnout is due to Brexit where UK residents in Malta no longer can vote.

As of Sunday, 88.2% of voting documents for the EP elections and 74.3% for the council elections had been collected.

Documents can now only be collected personally from the Naxxar vote-counting centre up until midnight on Thursday. Residents of Gozo can pick up their documents from the Identity Cards Office in Victoria, Gozo.

Early voting began on Saturday, allowing those who will be abroad next Saturday to cast their ballots. Approximately 14,000 people took advantage of this early voting option. Police officers and assistant electoral commissioners who will be on duty on Saturday will vote on Tuesday. This voting will take place at the counting hall in Naxxar and the Government Experimental Farm in Xewkija, Gozo. Hospital patients will vote on Thursday.

Voting on Saturday will occur in 117 polling stations across Malta and Gozo between 7am and 10pm. Voters will receive two ballots as they enter the polling stations: one for the EP elections and the other for the local council elections in their respective localities.

The vote-counting for the EP elections will begin first. The sorting process will start at 9am on Sunday, followed by electronic counting of the votes. While political parties are expected to have a clear result by late morning, the official result will be announced in the evening.

The vote-counting for the local council elections will take place over three days, from Wednesday, 12 June to Friday, 14 June.