The number of uncollected votes until yesterday was similar to that of 2008, even though this time around there were three more weeks to distribute the documents.

By yesterday morning 8,200 voting documents for the general election remained uncollected, according to the Chief Electoral Commissioner Saviour Gauci.

People have until mid-night tonight to collect all their voting documents.

In 2008 some 6,300 documents were uncollected by Wednesday, which worked out to about two per cent of the 315,357 registered voters in that election.

This year, there are 333,006 registered voters and the 8,200 uncollected votes represent 2.4 per cent of this figure.

Mr Gauci said that 1,200 documents were collected from the Commission’s offices on Monday and 664 on Tuesday.

The collection of documents carries on until midnight from the Electoral Commission’s Office in Valletta.

The boxes with the ballots will start arriving at the counting hall in Naxxar on Saturday at around 10pm. Staff at the counting hall will start opening them in the morning and sorting the votes in batches of 50.

The sorting of first count votes will only start on Sunday at 11am.

As is done usually, counters will start going through a batch of 50 votes from each district. When all districts are done, they will go for a second batch of 50.

If the result is not too close, as it was in 2008, when a wafer-thin 1,500 votes separated the parties at the first round counting, the parties will already have a good indication of the national vote.

Saturday will also see local council elections taking place in half of Malta’s localities. Here, some 18,300 voting documents remained undelivered yesterday.

However, one has to consider that around 14,000 of these voters are estimated to be non-Maltese residents, who have a tendency not to collect their vote.

“If one excludes these 14,000, the average of undelivered votes is proportionately the same as that for the General Election,” Mr Gauci said.

In all, there will be 116 polling stations and 700 polling boxes on Saturday. Most of the polling stations are in converted classrooms but some are in local council offices or parish centres.

The elections will be overseen by 4,850 assistant electoral commissioners and the counting will be carried out by 1,293 staff, who have been receiving their briefing at Naxxar counting hall.

A total of 269 candidates will contest the 65 parliamentary seats.

In line with legal amendments introduced last year, outlets within 50 metres of polling stations will not be automatically closed down on Saturday. Only political party clubs within that radius will be closed. However the police can intervene if they feel the need.

Shop owners, in particular, had complained that forcing them to close down because their shops were near polling stations caused them financial damage.

Asked whether the Commission had statistics on the number of voters living abroad who were flying back to Malta, Mr Gauci said he had no such statistics and said the flights were coordinated by the Office of the Prime Minister with Air Malta.

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