Valletta, Malta (CU)_ Malta’s Labor party won a third term in office following the general elections on Sunday, despite a history of corruption and the lowest turnout in decades. Although formal results were not expected for many hours, Prime Minister Robert Abela declared victory in a teleconference with a Maltese television, while Labor delegates watching the votes cheered in the counting chamber in the town of Naxxar.
Following the count, the Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne expressed his excitement to the media. He said, “We are very satisfied that for the next five years Malta will again have a Labor government”. He added that all indications pointed to an absolute majority for his party. Michael Piccinino, general secretary of the opposition Nationalist Party, stated that leader Bernard Grech had a conversation with the prime minister in order to concede.
The results of Saturday’s elections constitute Abela’s first electoral mandate, a lawyer who took control of the tiny Mediterranean island nation in January 2020 following an internal party vote. Joseph Muscat, his predecessor, was compelled to resign in the wake of public outrage over the 2017 car bomb murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who uncovered corruption at the highest levels of his administration. A public inquiry concluded last year that Muscat’s state fostered a culture of impunity in which her opponents thought they could silence her. Abela has now taken steps to improve administration and journalistic freedom, while the family of Caruana Galizia claims he has not reached far enough.
The Nationalist Party advocated for an investigation into corruption; however, Labor’s control of the coronavirus outbreak and its economic performance during its nine years in office took precedence. Several citizens, however, grumbled about a lackluster campaign featuring two basically identical parties. Malta has not had a third party in its parliament since before the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964.
It was also overshadowed by fears over the Ukraine crisis, with the government compelled to payout millions of euros reducing climbing commodities prices and the perception that the outcome was inevitable, with all polls indicating a Labor landslide. According to the Electoral Commission’s statement released yesterday, the turnout seemed to be on track to reach 85.5 percent, which is the lowest level in a general election since 1955, and the first time it has fallen below 90 percent since 1966. However, according to Fearne, the health minister of Malta, the attendance was “high by European standards.”
