The results of the local council elections confirmed what has been known all along – that there is no way that they can be used to gauge the people’s overall judgment of a government.

People look much deeper into the overall administration of the country when they vote in a general election. When they cast their preferences in a local council election, they look at other things – how their council functioned in the previous term in just one concept, although people often also use local councils to send their message to the government, either by voting against or by not voting at all.

Local council elections therefore cannot be compared to a general election, and this happens abroad too. It is common for parties in government to perform badly in local or regional elections, and Malta is no exception.

For one thing, in Malta the turnout at these elections is far, far lower than that of a national poll. In fact, on average, only two-thirds or a bit more of the electorate turns up to vote in local council elections, when the turnout in general elections is always over 90 per cent, sometimes over 95 per cent too.

It is also clear that a party in government always stands to lose in local elections. Usually, it is the pro-government supporters who fail to turn up or experiment with their vote, either to protest at the way the country is being administered or else simply because they feel that a candidate from another party is better than the ones being presented by their own.

There are, in fact, people who “switch sides” in local council elections, and this they do to elect candidates in whom they have more confidence, even though they represent another party that they will never vote for in a general election.

Others simply do not bother to vote in local councils, thinking that after all there is little difference in who manages their town or village, but they do then turn up when a general election is called. Choosing a mayor is one thing, and choosing a prime minister is another.

Take what happened on 8 March. The people voted to have a Nationalist Party in government. And, although in local council elections the MLP obtained a clear, absolute majority, the Nationalist Party won back three localities and increased the number of councillors it elected.

This means that, three years ago, when the elections took place in the same localities, many Nationalist voters did not vote. This time round, because the local council elections coincided with a general election, once they were at the polling booths many Nationalist voters cast their preference for their local council too.

This pushed the PN to win back the localities of Santa Venera, Mellieha and Mqabba, councils which had been led by a Labour mayor for at least three years. It is safe to say that if elections for these localities had been held on a different day than that of a general election, it is probable that Labour would have won them again.

This proves the theory that local council elections cannot be used as a measurement for the general feeling of the people. They might vote for another party in a local election, but it is much harder for them to do so in a general election.

What happened on 8 March should have made things very clear now. Local council elections are important, but only to a certain extent. What matters most is the general election.