Around 1,000 people were expected to cast their vote for the European Parliament elections by last night, the first time Maltese voters were allowed to vote before polling day proper.

A total of 1,070 voters who will be away on Saturday registered their names to be able to capitalise on a recently-enacted law, which allows eligible voters who declare they will be away on polling day during general, local or European Parliament elections to vote the week before.

Until 2 p.m. yesterday, 619 people had voted in the European Parliament elections while 375 had voted in the local council elections.

The polling booths opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 10 p.m. The 13 boxes with the EP votes and the 23 with the local council votes will be locked away in a strongroom at the Naxxar centre and will only be opened once the counting of votes begins.

The law followed a request by the Malta Olympic Committee to enable the Maltese contingent taking part in the Small Nations Games in Cyprus next weekend to vote.

The Labour Party had originally proposed that the Electoral Commission fly a ballot box to Cyprus to allow the athletes and officials to vote, while the Commission had suggested flying the contingent back to Malta to vote and then take them back to Cyprus.

However, the Nationalist Party said such suggestions were impractical and discriminated against other Maltese who would be abroad on the day.

A press call was issued yesterday for photographers and cameramen to take shots of the counting hall, but for some reason they were barred from doing so by members of the Electoral Commission.