Voting in the 2019 European Parliament and local council elections has now come to a close, and the ballot boxes began arriving at the counting hall in Naxxar.

The public cast their vote in 726 stations between 7am and 10pm.

The number of eligible voters was 371,625 for the European Parliament elections and 423,000 for local council elections.

The Electoral Commission is as yet to publicly state how many voting documents remained uncollected by Thursday at midnight, the deadline imposed for the collection of voting documents.

Reports said that over 38,737 voters did not collect their document for the EP election, which is more than 10% of the voters. This is a 4% increase over the 2014 figures.

This means that the number of voters with a document in hand was 332,888.

This was the first time that 16-year-olds were allowed to vote in the EP election. There were 41 candidates on the ballot sheet, the largest number since the EP election started in Malta in 2004.

It was the first time that counting of votes will take place electronically, with the first projections expected on Sunday at 8am.

The official result will however not be available before 11pm Sunday to coincide with the closing of polling booths across Europe.

 

Video and photos: Alenka Falzon