Five weeks of intensive election campaigning seem to have had little success to mobilise apathetic voters for today’s European Parliament election, as the number of undelivered votes is an all-time high.

Data released by the Electoral Commission yesterday showed that by Thursday at midnight the number of voters who did not bother to collect their document stood at 21,856. This represents 6.3 per cent of the 344,374 registered voters, of whom 7,880 are EU citizens living in Malta.

Nevertheless, the number of eligible voters – 322,518 – is still the highest and this because of an increase in the population.

A quick look at the rate of uncollected votes since the first election held in Malta weeks after EU accession in June 2004 shows clearly that the electorate is increasingly reluctant to participate. While 10 years ago 3.3 per cent had not collected their voting document, this rose to 4.9 per cent in 2009 and almost doubled to 6.3 per cent this year.

An analysis by electoral districts yields the very familiar pattern of recent years in which Nationalist Party-leaning regions in the northern part of the island top the list of undelivered votes.

As in 2009, the highest number was in the 12th district, which includes St Paul’s Bay and Naxxar, where 4,638 votes were not delivered.

Once again, the 10th district, which includes Sliema, is second with 3,408 undelivered votes followed by the ninth (2,170) that consists of Msida, Għargħur, San Ġwann, Swieqi and Ta’ Xbiex.

Bottom of the list was the fourth district, including Gudja, Għaxaq and Paola, with just 727 undelivered votes, followed by the sixth (793) that is made up of Qormi, Siġġiewi and Luqa and the second (1,006) that includes Cottonera, Żabbar and Xgħajra.

The Labour-leaning district with the highest number of undelivered votes was the third, which includes Żejtun, part of Fgura and Marsascala, where the number of undelivered votes was 1,199.

The trend is even more pronounced when analysing undelivered votes by locality. Once again, voter apathy was the highest in northern localities where the PN enjoys more support.

St Paul’s Bay accounted for 16 per cent of the total undelivered votes with 3,544 uncollected documents. This was followed by Sliema (1,503), St Julian’s (1,083), Mosta (832) and Swieqi (815).

In the south, Marsascala had the highest number of uncollected votes with 744, followed by Birżebbuġa (472), Żabbar (434), Fgura (294) and Paola (280).

As to be expected, the lowest number of uncollected votes was in small localities with Fontana holding the record with only 15 votes not being delivered.

Polling stations will be open between 7am and 10pm today. Though the entire line up of MEPs may take up to Monday evening to be known, a clear indication of the first count votes is expected by early tomorrow afternoon.

Undelivered votes by district

Undelivered votes by locality

Top 5
St Paul’s Bay - 3,544
Sliema - 1,503
St Julian’s - 1,083
Mosta - 832
Swieqi - 815

Bottom - 5
Fontana - 15
Mdina - 17
Għasri - 32
Safi - 32
San Lawrenz - 32