Just over 33,300 voting documents for today’s local council elections remain uncollected, more than half belonging to EU nationals listed on the Electoral Register.
When the window for the collection of votes closed on Thursday at midnight, 33,365 voting documents remained uncollected.
Foreign nationals who have the right to vote but did not collect their document amount to 16,939.
About 158,300 voting documents have been distributed.
In the 2007 round of local elections, which is when most of the councils last had their election, almost 7,000 voted remained uncollected.
Figures, however, cannot really be compared because this is the first round of elections since the law was changed last year providing for council elections in half the 68 localities every two years. These were previously held every year for a third of localities.
Through this change, as from next year, councillors will no longer serve a three-year term but four. The localities voting today, with the exception of Sliema, which will have another election next year, will be elected for a three-year term and residents will vote for a new council in 2015, this time electing the council for four years.
St Paul’s Bay is the locality with the largest number of uncollected votes with 7,328. In Sliema, 5,160 voting documents remained uncollected and in St Julians, 3,277 did not collect their votes.
A total of 1,693 people did not collect their voting documents in Mosta.
In Gozo, Xagħra had 708 uncollected votes, Żebbuġ 919 and Għajnsielem 518.
Elections will be held in the following localities: Attard, Balzan, Birżebbuġa, Dingli, Floriana, Gżira, Għajnsielem, Għargħur, Ħamrun, Iklin, Kerċem, Kirkop, Luqa, Marsa, Marsaxlokk, Mosta, Munxar, Nadur, Paola, Qala, Qormi, Safi, St Julians, St Pauls’s Bay, San Lawrenz, Santa Luċija, Senglea, Siġġiewi, Sliema Swieqi, Vittoriosa, Xagħra, Żebbuġ, Żebbuġ (Gozo) and Żurrieq.
Voting will take place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Due to population changes, six localities will see their council increase by two seats and one locality will lose two seats.
The Xagħra council will go up to seven councillors from five. The Attard, St Julians and Swieqi councils will have nine councillors instead of seven.
The Żurrieq council will increase to 11 members from nine and the St Paul’s Bay council will have 13 members, reaching the same number of councillors elected in Birkirkara, the largest locality in Malta.
On the other hand, the Ħamrun council will see the number of councillors drop to seven from nine.
In the last round of these localities, in 2007 or 2008, Labour elected 116 councillors, the Nationalist Party elected 110 and Alternattiva Demokratika elected two.