AND THE RESULT IS IN ...

I'm writing this at about 4:30 pm, bored almost to tears by the coverage I've been watching. I'm in Gozo, too, which is good because there's only been one carcade to disturb the peace, a couple of minutes ago, consisting of a few cars. It seems that the bulk of celebrations is going to be in Malta.

So there you have it, the Labour Party has creamed the PN, by what appears to be 55% or so of votes cast to about 40%, which will mean they're about 30 to 35 thousand votes ahead. By any definition, that is a right royal whupping, and the PN needs to take a long hard look at what made so many people stay at home and not bother to vote for it. Given that the turnout was only (only!) 79%, this means that Labour got 43.55% of the popular vote: I won't insult our intelligence by applying Santian logic (logic?) to this but it remains a fact that the drop in turnout seems to have hit the PN vote more than it hit the Labour vote.

Which means that Labour need to take a look at the situation too, because while they got an excellent result, a landslide unprecedented in Maltese polling history to be sure, there is a message for them there too. The message is that not enough voters were moved to vote positively for them, preferring to stick two fingers up at the PN but not loving Joseph Muscat enough to cross the voting floor.

In fact, this was reflected in the comments made by Marlene Mizzi to Net TV.

Admittedly, she had only just got to the Counting Hall, she said, when she was buttonholed by Net's reporter, but her response to the question about what the voting showed was true to the negative playbook that Labour have been sticking to slavishly all along. Instead of demonstrating what would have been understandable glee at her own personal result, which seems pretty good as I write, and at Labour's very good result, she played it straight down the line: "this shows how people were fed up with the PN in Government".

It doesn't seem to have occurred to her that here was the chance for her to make a positive statement about how she, and the Labour Party, were looking forward to working for Malta in Europe. Equally, it doesn't seem to have occurred to her, and nor has it to the hundreds of people out celebrating (and quite right too, they have every reason to celebrate) that tomorrow morning - indeed, this very minute - the Nationalist Party is still in Government and will be for the next four years or thereabouts.

I have no doubt that hers will be the message we're going to have rammed down our throat for the next few weeks or so, and far be it from me to begrudge the Labour Party the right to do what they will, given the result, but I hope they will keep their feet on the ground just as much as I hope the Nationalist Party will get the message and get their feet back on the ground.

Leaving aside the not completely unexpected result in party terms, as I write the only candidate that is sure to be elected from the PN side is Simon Busuttil, which was to be expected and is justly deserved. When the labyrinthine process of sorting second-preference votes is completed, I'm predicting that David Casa will come in second, if only because of the alphabetical effect, and if the PN get the sixth "Lisbon" seat, which appears quite possible (for all that it's weird that you can get whupped and still end up with equal seats) I'm wondering if it's going to be Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas, though when you get that far down the process, it's not easy to predict from first count votes. She's had a good run at the test, though, whatever happens.

From the Labour side, there's no out and out front-runner yet, from what I can see, but Louis Grech, Edward Scicluna and Marlene Mizzi are showing well. They wouldn't be a bad trio to represent us, from a national point of view, I suppose, as long as the latter two can get their policies straight.

Much thought will have to be given to the result from the Alternattiva Demokratika's side of the spectrum. Having cosied up to the Labour Party of late, though they deny it, this was a classic case of the minnow being swallowed, almost in passing, by the whale and they will have to have quite a good think about where they're going next. Perhaps a reversion to being the national conscience, outside and above the vulgar throng of daily politics? It's their call, anyway, and I dare to presume to give an opinion, I've no doubt that their groupies will dump all over me, as usual.

I've no real idea what the various other parties - if you can call them that - did. If Lowell, for instance, got more than one vote, and apparently he did, then that's worrying because it means that there are people who think his brand of xenophobic vitriol is worth voting for, even if in protest. The same applies to the AN and the other assorted peripherals, though frankly, that's all they are, peripherals and should be treated as such from now on by the media.