Measure of cross party voting apparent in election results

Did it occur to you to give your vote to Alfred Sant and then vote for a PN candidate at the last election?

At least 17 people did that on the first district and another seven did so on the eighth district, an analysis of the results shows.

Cross party voting, where a person gives his first preference to a candidate of a party and his second preference to a candidate of another party, is a curiosity which takes place in every election.

But in the last election, where EU membership played such a crucial role, it would not have come as a surprise to see people voting for PN candidates and then giving the second preference to MLP candidates because opinion polls as well as the referendum result showed there were many Labour supporters who were pro-membership.

But a close analysis of the election results shows that the number of people who switched vote from one party to another was not very high.

On the eighth and 11th districts, where Eddie Fenech Adami's surplus amounted to 13,109, 62 votes went to the MLP.

Most of Dr Sant's surplus of 5,211 votes on the first district went to the MLP candidates, but 17 votes went to the Nationalist Party and seven votes went to Alternattiva Demokratika candidates.

Of Austin Gatt's surplus of 239 on the first district, three went to the MLP, one to AD and the rest to PN candidates. Lawrence Gonzi's surplus of 403 votes on the second district went mostly to PN candidates, but six votes went to AD and four to MLP candidates.

In the 13th district, Gozo, most of the 2,843 surplus votes given to Giovanna Debono went to Nationalist party candidates, but 57 went to MLP candidates and 19 to AD candidates. On the other hand, of the 550 surplus votes of MLP candidate Anton Refalo, only 10 went to PN candidates, and one to Alternattiva.

A lot of AD votes were not transferable. On the seventh district, 64 out of 184 were not transferable. On the fourth district, 48 out of 123 were non-transferable while on the first district, 33 out of AD's 83 votes were not transferable.

On the third district, the PN candidates got only eight out of George Vella's 2,816 surplus votes, while AD obtained six. On the fourth district, the MLP candidates were somewhat luckier as they got nine of Jesmond Mugliett's surplus of 523. The PN candidates got only two of the 607 surplus votes given to MLP candidate Silvio Parnis.

On the fifth district, MLP candidate Karmenu Vella had a surplus of 488 , of which four went to PN candidates and one to AD. On the sixth district, PN candidates inherited only six out of the 933 surplus votes going to MLP candidate Marie Louise Coleiro.

On the seventh district, most of the surplus of MLP candidate Doreen Attard Montalto went to the MLP. Only three went to the PN. On the other hand, five of the 307 votes won by Richard Muscat, a PN candidate, went to the MLP.

On the ninth district, a Nationalist party stronghold, of the 1,277 surplus votes given to PN candidate Joe Borg, only five went to the MLP and 22 went to AD.

On the 12th district, of the 191 surplus votes won by PN candidate Louis Deguara, two went to MLP candidates and another two went to AD candidates.