PL win second round of Local Council Elections but lose votes again
Gerald Fenech , Published: June 14, 2024, 10:06 am
The Partit Laburista won the second round of the Local Council Elections but as in the previous day it continued to lose votes as well as councils.
In fact, the Nationalist Party managed to win back the 9th District localities of Msida and San Gwann and vastly reduced their vote gap in localities such as Pieta', Xaghra and Marsaskala. The PL held up in the South although it lost votes in Paola, Zabbar as well as Ghaxaq and Gudja, all traditional 4th district strongholds.
After the second round, the gap between both large parties stood at around 23,000 votes.
These are the percentages for the PN in the second round of voting:
PN % Difference from 2019 (2nd batch):
BORMLA -1.34%
ZABBAR +3.49%
VICTORIA -2.02%
FGURA +3.64%
GUDJA +5.5%
GHARB -0.04%
GHAXAQ +4.08%
KALKARA +3.46%
Hal Lija +4.78%
Marsascala +6.32%
Marsaxlokk +0.92%
Mgarr -0.39%
Msida +3.99%
Paola +3.77%
Pieta' +11.91%
Rabat (M) +1.59%
San Gwann +5.09%
Sannat +4.67%
Sliema +7.84%
Xaghra +11.73%
Labour’s losses across virtually all localities have been matched by gains made by both PN and independent or third-party candidates, in a similar pattern to that of the MEP elections held on the same day, where the votes lost by Labour were divided between the two.
With 44 of the 68 councils counted so far, PN has gained some 6,500 votes compared to its performance in 2019, while independent and third-party candidates have increased their votes by 4,200.