The votes cast in the local council election began being counted today, and the Labour Party saw great success.
Today's batch consisted of 23 councils, with the rest going to be counted tomorrow and on Friday.
The PL won a total of 16 localities, and the PN won 7. The PN lost two key localities today, Valletta and St Paul’s Bay.
Labour Party supporters spent much of the evening celebrating inside the Naxxar counting hall as a result of their electoral success.
In terms of first count votes, the PL dominated the first day.
The following is a list of the localities won by both parties:
PL: Valletta, Pembroke, Mqabba, Dingli, Ta’ Xbiex, Mellieha, Qrendi, Marsa, St Paul’s Bay, Santa Venera, Birzebbuga, Xewkija, Tarxien, Zurrieq, Zebbug, Zejtun
PN: Ghasri, Balzan, Fontana, St Julian’s, Iklin, Nadur, Ghajnsielem
11.35pm:An error was identified by this newsroom in terms of the voter turnout in Pembroke, with the amount issued by the Electoral Commission last week being far lower than the turnout reported today. Sources within the Commission said that the error is in last week's figure.
11.30pm: The last council for the day, Ghajnsielem has remained under PN control, with the party winning 4 of the 5 seats, gaining one seat. This concludes the counting of votes for today's batch of local councils.
11.13pm: The PN has kept hold of the Nadur local council, with 3 seats to 2. Earlier in the day PL representatives thought that they might have taken it. Edward Said will remain mayor. In Zebbug, the first non-major party candidate was elected with one seat going to an independent candidate - Steve Zammit Lupi. The PL took 5 of the seats in Zebbug, and the PN took 3.
11pm: The Labour Party has taken 7 of the 9 seats in Zurrieq. Rita Grima will be the mayor. The PN retained control of the Iklin council with 3 of the 5 seats. Zejtun went to the PL with 7 of the 9 seats.
10.41pm: The PL received a majority of votes in Xewkija, taking four of the five seats, with the PN taking the other. The PL was going to have a majority in this locality before the votes were counted, given that the PN only fielded two candidates. The PL also won the majority of seats in Tarxien (PL: 5, PN: 2)
10.39pm: The PL received 4,016 votes while the PN received 3,432 first count votes in St Paul's Bay. The PL won 7 seats and the PN 6.
10.29pm: The PN has retained St Julian's, winning 6 of the 9 seats. The other seats were won by the PL. Guido Dalli however will be replaced as mayor, and Albert Buttigieg will take over. the PL won Birzebbuga with 7 seats to the PN's 2.
10.20pm: Santa Venera has been won by the Labour Party, 4 seats to the PN's 3.
10.05pm: PL delegates broke out into cheers near the area where the St Paul's Bay local council votes were scanned, however the official results are yet to be published.
9.45pm: The Marsa local council has remained in the PL camp, with the party winning 6 out of the 7 seats. Josef Azzopardi will be replacing Francis Debono as Mayor.
9.30pm: The Labout Party won the Qrendi local council with four seats to the PN's 1. This council has traditionally been led by the PL. The PN, in the mean time, retained Fontana with 3 seats to the PL's 2, but won the locality with just 4 votes on the last count.
9.20pm: The Labour Party has retained the Mellieha council, winning 5 seats to the PN's 4. The Labour Party has led this council since 2013.
9.06pm: Some respite for the PN - they convincingly hold on to Balzan with four seats to Labour's one. Ian Spiteri will continue to serve as the locality's mayor with Angelo Micallef, Stephen Gatt, and Mary Louise Briffa also being elected for the PN. Oliver De Gaetano is elected as the PL's solitary representative in the Nationalist stronghold. He will take over the seat of Labour veteran Desmond Zammit Marmara, who did not seek re-election this time out.
9.00pm: With reference to the news that Mqabba has been retained by the PL, we can confirm that Omar Farrugia will be the locality's new mayor.
8.55pm: Ta' Xbiex has also remained Labour - Max Zammit retains his mayorship and is joined by Rosario Portelli and Oriana Calleja for the PL, and Louise Cachia Castelletti and Eugenio Muscat for the PN on the council. There were only six candidates for five seats in this locality - PL candidate Frank Roe is the unlucky person not to be re-elected to the council.
8.50pm: We've got official confirmation of the Valletta result; Labour win four seats over the PN's three, with TV presenter Alfred Zammit becoming the capital city's mayor. Ray Azzopardi, Lian Pace and Jurgen Briffa were also elected for the PL, while Christian Micallef, Mark Spiteri Lucas, and Vincent Fabri were elected for the PN.
8.45pm: Dingli is also easily retained by Labour. Raymond Schembri, Sandro Azzopardi, Paul Mamo, and Ryan Tanti were elected for the PL while David Vassallo takes a seat for the PN. It's not an altogether unexpected result - Vassallo was the PN's only candidate in this locality.
8.41pm: Results are starting to come in thick and fast now - Mqabba has been retained by the Labour Party after it first won the locality in 2013. Omar Farrugia, Henry Zaffarese, and Grace Marie Zerafa will take a seat each for the PL, while Jonathan Dingli and Owen Sciberras were elected for the PN.
8.24pm: Valletta turns, the Prime Minister has indicated, saying in a tweet that he is "proud" that the Valletta council, for the first time ever, will be led by Labour.
The official result on the actual screen in the counting hall has not yet been revealed. But the capital city's council has apparently swapped sides and gone to the Labour party. It's a significant switch; the Valletta council has been in the PN's hands since the beginning. However in 2013 the PN retained the locality with the slimmest majority since - just 51.58%. This translated to a margin of 150 votes out of the 4,756 cast. The turnout here was 63.84% - down from 83.2% in 2013.
8.09pm: The Labour Party has retained conteol of Pembroke, with three seats to the PN's two. Pembroke had a very low turnout for these local council elections. In 2013, the turnout rate was 85.60% which dropped to 36.50% this time round. This could be due to the controversial projects taking place in the area, such as that by the db Group, given that many residents objected yet the proposal was accepted. Mayor Dean Hili, who had objected to the project, was lifted onto the shoulders of the crowd when the PL's victory was announced.
8pm: No other results have as yet been officially published, however Pembroke and Ta'Xbiex are meant to be close to publication. Unofficially, it seems Valletta is going to be a close contest.
6.43pm: The PN has held on to Ghasri in Gozo, winning three out of the five seats. The council remains unchanged in terms of party composition to that after the 2013 local council election. The PN candidates received 185 first count votes and PL received 158.
6.35pm: The votes for Ghasri have been scanned, and the results known, the Electoral Commission said, however they were only passed on to party agents and the result has not yet been made public.
6.30pm: While official results are not out yet, the PL seem to be hopeful of winning St Paul's Bay, and Fontana might also switch, according to party agents on the ground. It is still however too early to tell.
5.40pm: The first votes have begun to be scanned
5.30pm: Votes began being turned face up, and party officials are taking note of where votes went. The scanning process will begin after this is done. As at this time, early indications of the localities being handled today are not yet apparent.
4.40pm: The majority of the counting agents from the political parties have arrived, as have a number of ministers, including Justyne Caruana and Ian Borg, as well as MPs such as Marthese Portelli, who are present in a show of support to their party's candidates.
3.25pm: Some of the localities have concluded thee first stage, where the ballots are unboxed and placed face down. This newsroom is hearing however that the second stage, where votes are lifted and shown to the party officials, and then scanned, will not begin till 5pm.
2.30pm: The Electoral Commission has just begun unsealing and opening the ballot boxes containing the votes cast in the local council elections.
The first phase will see the votes unboxed, placed face down and seal up. After this process concludes, votes will be turned over and scanned.
This is the first time an election for all local councils took place at the same time. The counting of the votes cast in 67 localities across Malta and Gozo begins today at the Naxxar counting hall, as hundreds of candidates from all political sides wait to see whether their work as candidates was enough to bear fruit. Vote counting will take place over three days, with the first batch of 23 councils having their votes counted today, another batch tomorrow and the last batch on Friday.
Votes for the local councils of Birzebbuga, St Paul's Bay, Iklin, Tarxien, Zurrieq, Ta' Xbiex, Ghajnsielem, Santa Venera, Mellieha, Pembroke, Zejtun, Mqabba, Valletta, Qrendi, Zebbug (Malta), Nadur, Balzan, Marsa, Fontana, Dingli, Xewkija, San Giljan and Ghasri will be counted today.
Turnouts have however fallen across the board; 433,481 people were eligible but only 60% turned out to vote last Saturday. Compared to the last set of elections in 2013 and 2015, not a single locality registered an increase in turnout, with Dingli being the only locality with a turnout that exceeded 80% (the turnout was 81.29% to be precise). Some of the lowest turnouts could be seen in localities like St Julian's and Swieqi, however one needs to keep in mind the non-Maltese population within these localities.
Photos and videos by Alenka Falzon