The Mediterranean Conference Centre’s occasional role as a counting hall is likely to end on Saturday, for the local council elections, as the counting process will most probably move to the Trade Fair Grounds in Naxxar.
Chief Electoral Commis-sioner Edward Gatt said that although no decision has been taken yet, the MCC would probably not be used again. He said that the move had to be planned well and that detailed plans still had to be drawn up.
Health and safety concerns, mainly the presence of asbestos, at the Ta’ Qali counting hall had forced the Electoral Commission to shift the venue of the vote-counting process to the Mediterranean Conference Centre a few years ago.
The last time local election votes were counted at the MCC before the last couple of years was in 1993, while the last time that votes cast during a general election were counted at the MCC was in 1971.
Asbestos is a name given to a group of minerals which occur naturally as masses of long silky fibres. It causes cancer.
Local elections are being held in 16 localities in Malta and another six in Gozo, and voting will take place between 7am and 7pm. In Malta, the localities are: Siggiewi, Gzira, Swieqi, Luqa, Floriana, Hamrun, Safi, Mosta, Qormi, Gharghur, Sta Lucija, Attard, Paola, Marsaxlokk, Birzebbuga and Birgu. In Gozo, elections will take place in Kercem, Munxar, San Lawrenz, Xaghra, Qala and Zebbug.
There are 102,311 eligible voters. Of these, 50,467 are male.
The total number of candidates who have to be elected are 140 from the 242 who are contesting the election. Around 626 staff in Malta and 117 in Gozo are being employed to count the votes and oversee the process.
A total of 164 ballot boxes will be used in localities in Malta while another 19 will be used in Gozo.
Mr Gatt explained that as soon as all the boxes from any locality arrived, they will be opened for the votes to start being counted immediately. The MCC hall where the votes will be counted is 155 metres long and 10 metres wide. In Gozo, the Victoria sports complex will be used as a counting hall.
Following the introduction of new procedures, the candidate who gets most votes from the party which gets the majority of seats on a council will be automatically elected mayor and the same process will be used for the election of deputy mayors.
When asked, a spokesman for the electoral commission did not give the media the latest number of people who did not collect their voting documents. He said the full list of people who will not have collected it by midnight today will be published in Friday’s Government Gazette.
Mosta will have the largest number of candidates contesting the election, with 19, followed by Swieqi with 17, and Qormi and Attard, each with 14 candidates. In Gozo, Xaghra will see 12 candidates competing for the five council seats, followed by Zebbug with 10 candidates. Gharghur has the lowest number, seven candidates contesting five seats. In Gozo, Kercem and Munxar also have seven candidates each, for the five seats on each council.