The official first count for the European Parliament elections is estimated to be out between 1am and 2am of Monday, according to Electoral Commission preliminary estimates.

However, political parties will have a clear indication a couple of hours after the start of the sorting process on Sunday afternoon.

The entire vote-counting process may take up to Tuesday especially if a number of candidates exceed the quota, which is expected to be around 35,000 votes. This is because the distribution of the surplus vote will delay the process. Sorting of the ballot documents according to candidate preference cannot start before noon on Sunday due to European Union rules.

Addressing a pres briefing at the Naxxar counting hall, chief electoral commissioner Joe Church said 24,719 voting documents were still not collected till 9pm yesterday.

There are, in all, 336,494 registered voters and an additional 7,880 European voters. Voting documents may be collected from Evans Building in Vallettta until tomorrow at midnight.

Ballot boxes used for early voting will be opened at Naxxar counting hall at 10pm on Saturday when voting closes. The rest will be opened as soon as they arrive at the counting hall. At this stage voting documents will not be sorted but placed in packets of 50.

 

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