Following the sealing of the ballot boxes, polling booths opened at 07:00CET and the voting started. The electorate can vote uninterruptedly on Saturday between 07:00CET and 22:00CET. This is the tenth general election for the Maltese Islands since Independence.
315, 357 were registered to vote for this general election. 1075 voting documents were withheld by the Electoral Commission while 5,266 remained uncollected. Thus, a total of 309,016 voters shall decide on the next legislature. This shows an increase in the number of eligible voters compared to the 2003 elections where the figure stood at 294,106 with 2,377 voting documents that had remained uncollected.
169 candidates are standing for the election. 76 are on the Nationalist Party list, 70 on the Labour Party's, nine for Alternattiva Demokratika, nine with Azzjoni Nazzjonali and five are independent candidates. Many of them are contesting two districts.
In turn, the number of uncollected voting documents for the local elections totalled 6,825 so that 92.7 % of registered voters can vote also on Saturday. There are 97,081 eligible voters. Local elections are being held in 23 localities of which 18 in Malta and 5 in Gozo. This constitutes around a third of the electorate.
In Malta, local elections are being held in Valletta, Senglea, Zebbug, Zejtun, Balzan, Dingli, Iklin, Kirkop, Marsa, Mellieha, Mqabba, Pembroke, Qrendi, St. Julian’s, St. Paul’s Bay, Sta. Venera, Ta’ Xbiex and Zurrieq.
In Gozo local elections are held in Fontana, Ghajnsielem, Ghasri, Nadur and Xewkija.
The counting process for the local council elections will start on 15 March 2008 after the completion of the counting of votes for the general elections.
The Electoral Commission notified that the use of mobile phones, cameras or other photographic equipment is prohibited in Polling Places. The Commission warned that anyone taking photographs or video without authorisation shall have his or her equipment confiscated.
Nearly 5,000 assistant electoral commissioners and other people involved in the running of the elections have already cast their votes on Friday as they are allowed to vote a day earlier than the rest of the electorate. Voting on Friday was, however, exclusively restricted to the assistant commissioners and to no other strata of the electorate. Their votes were cast in special ballot boxes at the new counting centre in Naxxar.
Vodafone Malta’s customers will be among the first to know the latest developments during this weekend’s General Election through SMS updates provided in collaboration with MaltaMedia.
All Vodafone customers who send a blank SMS to 50902008 will receive SMS updates with breaking news on the general elections. Customers may also send an SMS with the district number to 50902008 to receive specific information about the selected district. SMS updates are available to both prepaid and post paid customers. Each SMS costs €0.12 (Lm0.05).
Vodafone’s General Election SMS service via 50902008 will include breaking news as well as news relating to the opening of polling booths, mid-day turnout figures, final turnout figures, news from the counting hall, and news related to the election result. Information will be updated every hour.
Vodafone customers can request this information by sending an SMS to 50902008 with their district number as text i.e. from 1 to 13. Information on the chosen district will be updated by SMS until the official result is issued. Vodafone’s service will include updates by the Electoral Commission, first count votes and the members of Parliament elected.
For more details, including pictures and videos of the electoral campaign 2008, see MaltaMedia's special feature on the 2008 Malta General Elections.
