As the country today awaits the results of the 2013 general election, an analysis of the past 50 years clearly shows the Nationalist Party has been the most popular party in Malta.

Out of the 10 elections held since Malta’s independence in 1964, the Nationalist Party won the popular vote seven times, with Labour taking the other three. In 1981, despite obtaining the majority of votes, the PN was forced to occupy the opposition benches for another five years as Labour had managed to win more seats in the House of Representatives.

Following the 1981 result, amendments were made to the Constitution assuring that the party that gets most votes would also obtain most seats in Parliament.

The PN registered the biggest majority in 1998 with 51.8 per cent of the vote, just 22 months after Labour leader Alfred Sant defied the odds and won the election by 7,633 vote margin.

Of the seven PN electoral wins, Eddie Fenech Adami holds the record when he managed to win the popular vote in five of the six elections he contested as party leader.

The only defeat in Dr Fenech Adami’s long political career arrived in 1996 at the end of two consecutive legislatures. His arch-rival – Labour’s iconic leader Dom Mintoff – won the popular vote twice in the three elections he was at the helm.

Labour’s largest win in the past 50 years also came during Mr Mintoff’s time when his party beat the Nationalists with a majority of 51.53 per cent in 1976.

On the other hand, while George Borg Olivier, Alfred Sant and Lawrence Gonzi all won at least one election since Independence as party leaders, former Labour Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici failed.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici was co-opted to Parliament in 1983 to lead Labour following Mr Mintoff’s retirement. He lost the 1987 and 1992 general elections. With the exception of Dr Mifsud Bonnici, the figures show that whenever one of the two main parties changed its leader, it achieved success at the polls.

Dr Fenech Adami won the popular vote in 1981 and the same happened in 1996 when Labour contested the election with Dr Sant at the helm. Dr Gonzi also managed to win his first election as party leader in 2008 despite the fact that his party had already been in government for 10 years.

With Dr Gonzi’s success at the 2008 polls, the PN became the only party in Malta that managed to win the popular vote three times in succession.

Alternattiva Demokratika obtained its best result back in 1992 when it obtained 1.7 per cent of the vote.