• Valletta and St Paul's Bay swing over to Labour 
• Labour wins 16 out of 23 councils counted on Wednesday
• PN holds onto St Julian's, sees 8% gain in Nadur 
• Full list of elected councillors at bottom of article 

The Labour Party won the Valletta council for the first time since council elections started to be held, piling more pressure on the Nationalist Party just days after the European elections debacle.

The PL will have four of the seven councillors in the capital, with One presenter Alfred Zammit netting the most votes to be elected mayor. In 2013, when the last Valletta local council election was held, the Nationalist Party had won 51.6% of the vote.

Party counting agents began celebrating the Valletta win just after 8pm, even smashing the perspex used to separate party operatives from electoral commission officials in the process. 

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tweeted the news shortly afterwards. 

So proud that @PL_Malta will for the first time ever lead the local council of our capital city #Valletta -JM

— Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) May 29, 2019

Labour captures St Paul's Bay

The victory capped a day of wins for the Labour Party, which also won the St Paul's Bay council election, taking it over from the PN. In 2015, the PN had obtained 47.7% of the votes cast in St Paul's Bay, with the PL 46.9%, AD 3.5% and independent candidates 1.9%.

The PL also retained Mellieħa with five councillors to four, where Dario Vella will be the new mayor replacing Johnny Buttigieg, who was also elected; as well as Santa Venera withbfour councillors to three.

Labour also scored another success in its stronghold of Marsa, where the party won six of the seven available seats. It will be the first time Marsa has a seven-member council: previously the locality had five councillors, four of whom represented the PL.

Overall, the PL won 16 out of the 23 localities counted on Wednesday.

PN retains St Julian's

The PN could take solace in the fact that it retained its stronghold St Julian's, winning the council 6-3.

The party also kept hold of Għasri - the first locality to get its result on Wednesday evening - despite losing 3.3 per cent of the votes there. 

Results for Għasri were issued about an hour after the sorting process began. In the end, the Nationalist Party obtained 185 votes with the Labour Party just 30 behind at 158. 

The second result issues was for Pembroke, another small locality, but the counting process took an hour and a half. As expected, the locality was retained by the Labour Party.

 

Results continued to trickle in with the PL electing four of the five councillors in Dingli, Xewkija and Qrendi, three of the five councillors in Mqabba and Ta' Xbiex, seven of the nine councillors in Birżebbuġa, Żejtun and Żurrieq and five of seven councillors in Tarxien. The PN elected four of the five councillors in Balzan and three of the five in Fontana, Iklin and Nadur.

In Għajnsielem, the PN increased its majority from three to four as Stephen Mercieca, previously an independent, was now elected on the PN list.

In Żebbuġ, independent candidate Steve Zammit Lupi was elected with more than 900 votes. He will join five PL and three PN councillors in the locality's new council.

Sorting process

The sorting process in the first batch of local elections starting right on time at 5.30pm. Ballot sheet scanning started shortly after the ballots in the first boxes were sorted, at around 5.45pm.

The first results were expected immediately, but none had been given by 6.15pm.

Ballot boxes containing the votes of 23 localities started being opened at the counting hall in Naxxar earlier in the afternoon in preparation for the vote sorting.

The atmosphere at the counting hall, which was very quiet earlier with just a handful of party agents roaming around, got busier and rowdier once the sorting started.

As happened in the European Parliament elections, the votes will be counted electronically - reducing the process of vote inheritance, which used to take up to days, to just three minutes.

A few teething problems were experienced for the EP elections, which had delayed the process.

Counting agents from both parties acknowledged that the new electronic system had taken the "excitement" of the counting process away.

This was because there would be no indication during the process of how individual candidates were doing. 

The screens only display the number of the ballot box being inspected and any dubious ballots. The result - from first to final count - would then be immediately announced with the results for the smaller localities coming out first.

When asked why the process was not started on Wednesday morning, sources close to the Electoral Commission blamed it on a lack of resources when compared to previous years, with fewer people applying to be counting agents.

Even the political parties were not keen on starting the process in the morning as candidates and their agents would not be available due to work commitments. Being a workday, it was even harder to find the required number of staff due to availability.

So it was agreed to start sorting at about 5.30pm.

The localities counted on Wednesday are Valletta, Birżebbuġa, Dingli, Balzan, Tarxien, Żebbuġ, Marsa, Mellieħa, Qrendi, Żejtun, Żurrieq, Iklin, Mqabba, Pembroke, St Julian’s, St Paul’s Bay, Sta Venera and Ta’ Xbiex in Malta and Għajnsielem, Fontana, Nadur, Xewkija and Għasri in Gozo.

The Gozo votes are also being counted in Malta.

Elected councillors

Għasri: Daniel Attard (mayor), Salvu Felice Pace, Emanuel Mintoff - PN; Elizabeth Mintoff Elizabeth, Sammy Saliba - PL

Pembroke: Dean Hili (mayor), Omar Elaref Arab, Raymond Lanzon - PL; Desiree Vella Brincat, Charles Cesare - PN

Valletta: Alfred Zammit (mayor), Ray Azzopardi, Ian Pace, Jurgen Briffa - PL; Christian Micallef, Mark Spiteri Lucas, Vincent Fabri - PN

Dingli: Raymond Schembri (mayor), Sandro Azzopardi, Paul Mamo, Ryan Tanti - PL, David Vassallo - PN

Mqabba: Omar Farrugia (mayor), Mary Grace Zerafa, Henry Zaffarese - PL; Jonathan Dingli, Owen Sciberras - PN

Ta' Xbiex: Max Zammit (mayor), Rosario Portelli, Oriana Calleja - PL; Louise Cachia Castelletti, Eugenio Muscat - PN

Balzan: Ian Spiteri (mayor) Angelo Micallef, Stephen Gatt, Mary Louise Briffa - PN; Oliver de Gaetano - PL

Qrendi: David Michael Schembri (mayor), Patrick Bugeja, Marion Parnis, Carmel Zerafa - PL; Daniel Farrugia - PN

Mellieħa: Dario Vella (mayor), John Buttigieg, Rebecca Bartolo Cutajar, Annabella Brincat Stellini, Kurt Michael Buttigieg - PL; Ivan Castillo, Marvin Abela, Gabriel Micallef, Emvin Bartolo - PN

Fontana: Saviour Borg (mayor), Josephine Camilleri, Carmel Farrugia - PN; Horace Micallef, Jonathan Cefai - PN

Santa Venera: Stephen Sultana (mayor), Gianluca Falzon, Kursten Dimech, Silvio Vella - PL; Darren Carabott, Courtney Farrugia, Joe Vella - PN

St Julian’s: Albert Buttigieg (mayor), Guido Dalli, Patricia Camilleri, Clayton Luke Mula, Rita Dimech Portelli, Sean Gauci - PN; Adrian Dominic Ellul, Martin John Sultana, John Agius - PL

Birżebbuġa: Joseph Farrugia (mayor), Scott Camilleri, Josette Busuttil, Sandro Alexander Caruana, Maria Mifsud, Carlo Stivala, Joseph Baldacchino - PL; Stanley Zammit, Doriana Portelli - PN

Tarxien: Joseph Abela (mayor), Darlene Vella Zammit, Neil Portelli, Thomas Debattista, Christian Pace - PL; Ismael Dalli, Anabelle Marmara - PN

St Paul’s Bay: Alfred Grima (mayor), Carlos Zarb, Darryl Connor, Mario Joseph Salerno, Alfred Bray, Paul Bugeja, Stephen Cremona - PL; Graziella Galea, Anne Marie Fenech, Anthony Delia, Anthony Angelo Attard, Christopher Vella Petroni, Antoinette Bezzina - PN

Żurrieq: Rita Grima (mayor), Ignatius Farrugia, Joseph Damato, Kaydem Schembri, Tiffany Farrugia, Marisa D’Amato, Kenneth Farrugia - PL; Kyle Mifsud, Dino Bonnici - PN

Iklin: Dorian Sciberras (mayor), Yvonne Bartolo, Emanuel Zammit - PN; Bernice Farrugia, Godwin Catania - PL

Żejtun: Doris Abela (mayor), Joan Agius, Stephania Fenech, Gesmond Baldacchino, Raymond Caruana, Camilleri Dorcas, Sean Chircop - PL; Amanda Abela, Roderick Caruana, PN

Nadur: Edward Said (mayor), Eucharist Camilleri, Josef Frank Camilleri - PN; Joseph Vella, Jean Paul Portelli - PL

Żebbuġ: Paul Malcolm Galea (mayor), Mark Camilleri, Clive Azzopardi, Philip Edrick Zammit, Patrick Bonnici - PL; George Cortis, Kevin Glynn - PN; Steve Zammit Lupi - Independent

Għajnsielem: Kevin Cauchi (mayor), Franco Ciangura, Stephen Mercieca, Teddy Saliba - PN; Larry Buttigieg - PL

Xewkija: Hubert Saliba (mayor), Paul Azzopardi, John Vella, Domenic Zerafa - PL; Jeanelle Attard - PN

Marsa: Josef Azzopardi (mayor), Joseph Scerri, Francis Debono, Colin Pace, Domenic Spencer, Joseph Lia - PL; Charmaine Aquilina - PN