The future of spring hunting is expected to be settled this morning as Malta’s first abrogative referendum attracted 75 per cent of voters yesterday – meeting the 50-per-cent-plus-one threshold.

Surveys conducted during the campaign consistently put the No camp ahead; however, the Yes camp picked up the pace in the last week.

Party insiders privy to the country’s most sophisticated polling systems were last night unable to predict the referendum result.

Polls by both parties agreed that there was a higher proportion of Yes voters on the Labour side than the PN side, in spite of the fact that both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil declared they would personally vote Yes.

However, it is very difficult to predict the voting pattern on the basis of party allegiance and turnout figures were not indicative.

If the Yes vote wins, the law will remain as it is and the spring hunting season opens again on Tuesday. If the No wins, the law will be abolished and spring hunting will be stopped.

This is the first time a referendum has been requested by citizens with all the preceding six referendums held over 145 years being consultative.

Aside from the referendum, 34 districts also voted for local councillors.

No incidents were reported, save for some minor, last-minute lobbying efforts from some Yes campaigners who could be liable to prosecution under the so-called reflection day law.