Thousands of voters will be voting between 7am and 7pm today for the members on their council for the next three years, as candidates for 16 councils in Malta and six in Gozo await their electorate’s verdict.

There will be particular attention on Gzira and Mosta, judging by the emphasis placed on these localities by the political parties, especially the Malta Labour Party, which wants to overturn the PN majorities in the two towns.

Local elections are being held in Attard, Birgu, Birzebbuga, Floriana, Gharghur, Gzira, Hamrun, Luqa, Marsaxlokk, Mosta, Paola, Qormi, Safi, Santa Lucija, Siggiewi and Swieqi. In Gozo, elections will take place in Kercem, Munxar, Qala, San Lawrenz, Xaghra and Zebbug.

There are 102,311 eligible voters.

Altogether, 140 councillors have to be elected from the 242 candidates who are standing for election. Seven candidates have been fielded by Alternattiva Demokratika, 110 by the Malta Labour Party, 121 are standing on behalf of the Nationalist Party and four are independent.

A total of 626 staff in Malta and 117 in Gozo are being employed to count the votes and oversee the process. There will be a total of 164 ballot boxes in localities in Malta and another 19 in Gozo.

The counting process will once again be conducted at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta. In Gozo the counting will take place at the Victoria Sports Complex.

Up to midnight on Thursday – the deadline for the collect-ion of voting documents – a total of 6,889 had still not been collected. The largest number of uncollected voting documents was in Swieqi, with 907, and the fewest in Safi, with 42.