Journalists were yesterday taken on a familiarisation tour of the new counting complex yesterday, currently being set up at the former Trade Fair Grounds in Naxxar, in preparation for the upcoming general elections.

Electoral Commission official Louis Fsadni said that the work on the new counting hall was nearing completion. The need for a new hall arose after the former counting hall at Ta’ Qali was bought by the US government to build an embassy there.

Chief Electoral Commissioner Edward Gatt pointed out that while there were 297,860 registered voters in the last elections, there are now 315,217 registered voters, the number of polling booths has been increased from 535 to 556, and there will be nine counting assistants for each district.

“Assuming the Naxxar premises for a year has cost the commission Lm100,000/EUR 232,937. The site has been taken over for a year because the general elections can be delayed until 18 August, 2008 at the very latest,” he said.

“The new counting complex is 320 square metres bigger than the one we had at Ta’Qali, and we also think it is nicer than the previous one!” said Mr Fsadni. “Taking into consideration that the ballot boxes coming from Gozo are always late, we have placed the 13th district, Gozo, between 11 and 12, in order to help those votes to get processed faster.”

Two boxes will be opened at the same time for each district.

Security measures in place include 32 CCTV cameras.