Record number of unclaimed votes
PN districts most affected
With just six days to go till the general election, a record 14,000 voting documents remain unclaimed, statistics obtained by The Sunday Times show.
The largest number of uncollected documents is in the 10th and 12th districts - incorporating areas like Sliema and St Paul's Bay - traditionally Nationalist strongholds.
According to the latest figures available, 10 per cent of all eligible voters in the 12th district had still not collected their vote and 7.4 per cent remained unclaimed in the 10th district. On the other hand, the smallest number of unclaimed voting documents is in the fourth district, which includes localities like Gudja and Paola, renowned for their Labour support.
Around 5.8 per cent of votes remain unclaimed in Nationalist districts, in comparison to 3.1 per cent in districts with traditional Labour sympathies.
Some 29,000 voting documents for the general election were undelivered until last week when they were all transferred to police stations. Around 14,800 voting documents were collected over the past seven days.
The figures are in stark contrast to the 2003 election when 15,700 voting documents were initially delivered to the police stations and eventually just 2,130 failed to collect their document.
Voting documents may only be collected from police stations until noon today. All applicants must show their identity card. From tomorrow till Thursday, voters must collect them from the Electoral Office, Evans Building, St Elmo Square, Valletta, or in the case of voters registered in Gozo, from the Identity Card Office, 28A, St Francis Square, Victoria.
The voting documents can be collected on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Thursday from 8 a.m. to midnight. No one will be able to vote without a polling document.
Some individuals called The Sunday Times yesterday complaining that they were not being permitted by police to collect the voting documents of relatives who were living overseas, and who would be arriving the day before the election.