Some 74.8 per cent of voters cast their preference yesterday as Malta went to the polls to elect its six representatives to the European Parliament.

According to official figures obtained this morning, turnout is four per cent down on 2009, when 78.8 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote. In 2004, when Malta held its first European elections 82 per cent had cast their vote.

The most significant preliminary analysis to emerge last night was that the districts that suffered the most were PN-leaning, with the worst performing districts being the 10th (67.4 per cent) and the 12th (65.7 per cent).

Labour seems to have managed to mobilise voters

In the 12th district, the situation happens to be skewed because of the extraordinary number of non-Maltese EU nationals living there. However, sources close to the campaign teams of the two main parties agreed that there appears to be a trend.

Election analyst Hermann Schiavone told The Sunday Times of Malta: “Labour seems to have managed to mobilise voters and I expect this to be reflected in the result.”

The turnout figures follow the trend seen with the number of uncollected votes. A total of 6.3 per cent of registered voters did not bother to pick up their document, up from 4.9 per cent in 2009 and 3.3 per cent five in 2004.

In 2009, Labour had polled 54.8 per cent, to the Nationalist Party’s 40.5 per cent. Alternattiva Demokratika got 2.3 per cent and the others combined got the remaining 2.4 per cent. In last year’s general election, Labour’s lead in percentage terms remained unchanged while the PN share rose to 43.3 per cent.

“For the purpose of analysis, if one had to assume that the parties maintained the result they got in the general election, there would be a gap of about 30,000 votes so one would have to see how that changes,” Dr Schiavone said.

Both parties built up the campaign as a referendum on the government’s performance with Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil inviting the electorate to use their vote to show the Prime Minister a “yellow card”.

Buoyed by polls which consistently gave Labour a comfortable lead, Joseph Muscat played on the football theme, challenging Dr Busuttil to “bring it on”.

Parties should havean early indicationby the afternoon

Beyond the occasional display of bluster, however, many analysts commented on the bland character of the election campaign. The only exception came two weeks ago when one of Labour’s frontrunners, Cyrus Engerer was forced to pull out after he was given a two-year suspended sentence for maliciously distributing compromising pictures of his former partner.

Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant is expected to take the lead in the polls, followed by Roberta Metsola and David Casa on the Nationalist ticket and Miriam Dalli on Labour’s side, in that order.

Counting is expected to start at around noon today and the parties should have an indication of the outcome about half an hour later, particularly as Labour is widely expected to keep a significant lead over the Nationalist Party in terms of votes. The official result of the first count is expected in the early hours tomorrow morning, while the full line-up of Malta’s six MEPs may take up to Tuesday.

First to cast his vote yesterday morning was Archbishop Paul Cremona in Attard followed by President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca in Lija. Dr Muscat and Dr Busuttil cast their vote without speaking to the press. AD chairman Arnold Cassola, who contested the EP election, cast his vote in Pembroke.

Timesofmalta.com will be providing detailed reports as the results start coming out as well as the first reactions coming out of the counting hall in Naxxar.

Percentage turnouts