PN loses traditional dominance

The undisputed outcome of this round of local elections is that this batch of 23 local councils is, for the first time, not under Nationalist Party dominance. But perhaps more surprising was the news that three councils which were lost to a new Labour majority.

Labour managed to garner just under 54 per cent of the votes, as opposed to the PN's 42.9 per cent in an election characterised by a record low 66 per cent turnout.

More significantly, voters gave an unprecedented lead to the MLP on the Pietà, San Gwann and Msida local councils, which have now become Labour strongholds among the 15 local councils under its control.

In general, AD failed to consolidate its position as it had set out to do. In the balance, it lost one councillor out of three.

Birkirkara was hard fought but in the end, the PN won the upper hand, albeit with a paltry number of votes. The parties are now neck-and-neck there (48.6 PN to 47.7 MLP), as opposed to the situation in 2003 (55.6 PN/37.8 MLP).

In the fiercely contested locality of Rabat, the MLP stood its ground and improved its leading position marginally.

But there were bloodier battlegrounds elsewhere. As expected the PN was damaged substantially by the Qui-Si-Sana and the Marsascala recycling plant issues.

In Sliema, Labour and AD cashed in handsomely as the PN saw a 10 percentage point dive in its support from 70.2 per cent in 2003 to 62.6 on Saturday. AD went up three percentage points to 10.3 per cent while Labour surged some six points to 28 per cent.

The PN's fall from grace here was even more dramatic compared to 1997, when it enjoyed just over 80 per cent of the support. Labour was not yet taking part in the local council elections then.

Similarly, in Marsascala, PN support dropped a record 15 per cent from some 37.1 per cent to 22.4 per cent as Labour's support swelled to 61 per cent from 55.4 per cent.

The biggest victory there was scored by independent Josie Muscat, whose Grupp Indipendenti Marsascala, garnered a whopping 15.4 per cent.

In Pietà, Msida and San Gwann the story was very similar. Without having captured any special attention during the election campaign, all three localities were the sites of a decisive swing in favour of the MLP.

In Pietà, the PN's support dropped from 56.2 per cent in 2003 to 48.6 this time round while Labour's increased from 43.7 per cent to 51.42 per cent. There was a similar pattern in Msida and San Gwann, with Labour gaining 13 percentage points in the latter.

Overall, when compared to the last local elections in these localities, the PN's loss was consistent, unlike Labour's gain. In 2000 the MLP obtained 48.8 per cent of the votes while the PN netted 49.3 per cent. In 2003, which coincided with the EU referendum, Labour saw its support dip to 46.97 per cent while the PN's fell to 48.9 per cent.

The PN leader did not commit himself to an interpretation when asked for it yesterday, saying instead that the result was probably a mix of factors. In fact, despite the overall negative trend over the past elections, the party managed to do considerably well in Gharb and Ghaxaq. In the latter, for example, the party's support has grown steadily from 57.4 per cent in 2000 to 70.49 per cent on Saturday.