The results of the May 25 European Parliament and local elections were a drubbing for the Nationalist Party. But it was neither a meltdown nor a wipeout, as some suggested.
The PN still commands a majority in a large swathe of the country, in electoral districts eight to 12. Against all predictions, it contained the haemorrhage in Gozo. The red belt is widening but the blue belt is holding the PN fort, albeit with reduced majorities.
An examination of the voting in the 2017 general election and this year’s local council elections gives comparative results that are revealing. This is not an exercise intended to mitigate the PN’s defeat at the polls but aimed at putting the results in perspective.
Below are the results of the local councils in the eighth to the 12th district, which, for many years, gave a majority to the PN, compared to those of the general election (2017 general election results in brackets).
District 8 (Balzan, Birkirkara, Iklin, Lija)
PN: 9,936 – 50.7% (12,591 – 52.9%).
PL: 9,116 – 46.5% (10,830 – 45.5%).
Others: 542 – 2.8% (384 – 1.6%).
District 9 (Għargħur, Msida, San Ġwann, Swieqi, Ta’ Xbiex)
PN: 9,986 – 55.1% (13,007 – 56.3%).
PL: 7,951 – 43.9% (9,712 – 42.0%).
Others: 171 – 1.0% (362 – 1.7%).
District 10 (Gżira, Pembroke, St Julian’s and Sliema)
PN: 9,355 – 57.3% (14,058 – 60.3%).
PL: 6,459 – 39.6% (8,873 – 38.0%).
Others: 504 – 3.1% (388 – 1.7%).
District 11 (Mdina, Attard, Mosta)
PN: 10,210 – 54.6% (13,207 – 55.2%).
PL: 8,095 – 43.3% (10,282 – 43.0%).
Others: 386 – 2.1% (421 – 1.8%).
Note: Votes for the Mdina local council are not included as no election was held.
District 12 (Mellieħa, Naxxar and St Paul’s Bay)
PN: 11,076 – 50.0% (11,921 – 51.0%).
PL: 9,907 – 44.7% (11,120 – 47.5%).
Others: 1,163 – 5.3% (338 – 1.5%).
Surveys by local papers prior to the European and local elections were spot on with regard to the state of the political parties. Except for Gozo.
Maltatoday reported on May 5 that “in Gozo, the PL maintains its supremacy with 38.4 per cent of the vote against the PN’s 26.8 per cent”.
The present andthe past ‘establishment’ must unite as one party
Extrapolated, these figures give Labour 58.9 per cent to the PN’s 41.0 per cent.
With the official results known, Gozo tells a different story. In fact, the PL polled 11,750 votes, or 50.4 per cent (general election 13,233 – 51.2%), the PN 10,900, or 46.7 per cent (general election 12,361 – 47.8%) and others 683 votes, or 2.9 per cent (general elections 113 – 1.0%).
Labour obtained majorities in four localities in Gozo, the PN in eight and two other localities are split and depending on independent candidates. For the PN, Gozo produced the only gain in local council elections, taking over one locality from Labour.
That’s for the results. I was hoping that, following the May 25 elections, the PN would go through a lot of soul-searching and determine what went wrong and why.
To also determine why so many thousands of PN supporters deserted the polling booths. We speak a lot about learning from past mistakes but after a few weeks everything is forgotten. This time, I thought it will be otherwise. But it is not.
The late former prime minister and PN leader George Borg Olivier once told me that in politics one must know how to manoeuvre. In the late 1950s and beginning of the 1960s, he nearly lost the leadership of the party when it split in two.
A lot of people wrote him and the party off. But it was not so. Through patience, determination and diplomacy he managed to win over the majority of the Nationalists and the 1962 election. He became prime minister and attained Independence for Malta.
Today, we hear a lot about “the establishment”. In the case of the PN, the present administration took over from the one that administered before the 2017 general election. Thus, the present ‘establishment’ took over from the past ‘establishment’.
Unless the present and the past ‘establishment’ unite as one party, unless everybody is taken on board to contribute as best they can with their expertise and experience, the blue belt will go on receding and the red belt will widen and take over.
The PN, like any other political party, does not have a divine right to govern. This right is given by the electorate and must be attained through hard work, appropriate decisions and strength in unity.
Joseph Zahra is a former newspaper editor.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece