Seven hamlets hold elections for administrative committees today

Just over 7,300 people are eligible to vote today in elections to elect administrative committees in the seven hamlets where they live.

The elections are being held in Guardamangia (Pieta) Swatar (Birkirkara and Msida) Baħrija (Rabat) Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq (Naxxar), Tal-Virtu' (Rabat) Burmarrad (St Paul's Bay and Hal Farrug (Luqa)

Five candidates will be elected for each hamlet. An election due to have been held for the committee at St Peter's in Zabbar was called off because there were only three candidates, who were immediately declared elected. The Electoral Commission will have to issue a fresh call for candidates and if more than two come forward, an election will be held.

The committees will take over the running of their hamlets from their local councils. They will have their own budget, which will be a portion of the funds allocated to the local councils.

This is the second set of elections for administrative committees - the first was on March 27. As in the first, procedures are informal in that voters only use their ID Card (and not a voting document) and vote-counting takes place in the polling centres rather than in a centralised location.

There are 56 candidates, including 30 standing for the Nationalist Party and 24 under the PL banner.

Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. and close at 3 p.m.

Labour leader Joseph Muscat cast his vote in Burmarrad this morning.