The two main political parties on Republic Day held their traditional end-of-year fund-raising campaigns, collecting a total of Lm420,210.

The Nationalist Party collected a record sum of Lm316,490, raising the money to complete the second phase of construction of its headquarters in Pietà. The Malta Labour Party (MLP) collected Lm103,720, which will be used to fund the local and general election campaigns.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and secretary general Joe Saliba thanked all those who contributed and donated money to the party.

Malta Labour Party secretary general Jason Micallef said the MLP was very happy with the amount of money collected.

He added that most of it was donated by committee volunteers who collected the money through door-to-door visits.