It was 25 years ago today that the Maltese were called to vote in what turned out to be a watershed election, as it ended 16 years of socialist rule, earmarked by political violence, and led to the Nationalist Party taking over the reins of government. Stephen Calleja looks at what took place on 9 May, 1987, placing it in the context of the political scenario of the time

The day was tense.

9 May, 1987, 25 years ago today, was the last possible date on which an election could be held as the Labour Party stretched its tenure right till the end, for five years and five months.

The country was divided in two – more than it ever had been before. The Labour Party had stayed on in power in spite of obtaining fewer votes than the Nationalist Party in the December 1981 election.

What came after were years of political turmoil. The PN, in the opening months of the legislature, refused to attend Parliamentary sittings, but later changed its mind as the first steps towards some kind of agreement that would lift Malta out of the crisis began to be made.

But it took long for the MLP and the PN to come to terms on changes to the Constitution that would guarantee the party obtaining the larger number of votes the right to govern, and this came at a cost for the PN too, because it had to accept the inclusion of the neutrality clause as part of the bargain.

It was a different world then, a time when the United States and the Soviet Union were slowly progressing towards the end of the Cold War, which would have only been declared over more than two years later, ironically off the Marsaxlokk Harbour when the heads of the two superpowers, US President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, met in December 1989.

But, back in 1987, it was a matter of give and take, as the changes to the electoral law were far too important for the Nationalist Party for them not to give in to Labour’s demands. Only one Nationalist MP had voted against the changes – Josie Muscat, who went on to abandon the party.

But history proved the PN right because, once again, the 1987 election led to another perverse result – Labour got more seats in spite of getting fewer votes – and it was only thanks to the electoral law amendments that the PN took over the governing of the country by adding extra MPs to their tally.

It was the first time that a party which won fewer seats but more votes had the chance to elect extra MPs to make up for the difference. This gave the Nationalist Party a one-seat majority in Parliament. That time, that extra seat was enough for the PN to govern without any problems, unlike what is happening today.

But, after 16 years of socialist rule, no PN MP would have dared upset the apple cart in a fit of selfishness and self-righteousness. It is perhaps no coincidence that, 25 years later, the Nationalist government chose this particular day to face a crucial vote in Parliament. The day of the 1987 election, as said, was tense from the early hours.

The country had been through one of its darkest periods in history, certainly the darkest since Independence in 1964. Just six months earlier, a PN attempt to hold a mass meeting in Żejtun had ended up with Nationalist supporters injured seriously as Socialist thugs, with the comfort of the presence of police officers by their side, built up barriers to prevent them from doing so. A few days later, a Nationalist Party activist, Raymond Caruana, was killed as shots were fired at the Gudja PN club.

These two events were the most serious in a string of events that included bombs exploding on the doorstep of PN clubs, the use of tear gas against PN supporters and fears that, at any one time, an incident could trigger even more political violence.

And it was therefore no surprise that the day when the people were asked to vote was tense. The build-up itself had been earmarked by various incidents. At the time, the PN daily In-…Tagħna (the word Nazzjon was prohibited by another strange law enacted by the Labour government) was issued twice a day in the weeks leading up to the election.

It was the final push the Nationalist Party was making to win the election. In all, between 20 December, 1981 (a few days after the 1981 election) and May 1987 the PN had held 75 mass meetings, with 22 of them in the last four months of the Labour term in office. Most of these meetings were held on Sunday afternoons, and they became a ritual in which Nationalist supporters met to exchange ideas and keep abreast of the developments.

It must not be forgotten that, at the time, there was only one TV and radio station, which was controlled in full by the Labour government, so much so that for a time the name of the Nationalist Party leader, Eddie Fenech Adami, was not mentioned as a sign of disrespect. On the day of the election, people were queuing up outside polling booths long before they opened. It was as if they wanted to do their duty as early as possible, and then quickly go back to the safety of their homes as they awaited the outcome. Police presence at all polling stations was high too.

It was different to what we have grown used to now, with people trickling in to vote at all times of the day. In that election, the great majority of people voted in the first three or four hours, and this after having waited for hours on end outside.

In fact, the official report compiled by the Electoral Commission observed that there were long queues in the morning but, by the afternoon, people were trickling in because the majority had voted in the morning.

Voting closed at 10pm on the day, but it took more than 48 hours for the official result to be known.

The procedures at the Ħal Far counting hall moved at a snail’s pace. The first boxes were opened at 9am on 10 May, and only half of them had been opened by 5pm that same day.

The actual counting started at 6.15am on 11 May, and it was only at 10.30pm that it became clear that the Nationalist Party had won. Actually, the Electoral Commission announced the official result at 4am on Tuesday 12 May.

One small anecdote is that Rai Uno – through journalist Alberto Castagna, who later became more famous for his Stranamore programme – had announced the PN victory in its 8pm news on Monday, that is hours before the result was made public in Malta.

On the Tuesday, In-…Tagħna once again became In-Nazzjon Tagħna, with a large photo of the PN leader Eddie Fenech Adami on the front page. Dr Fenech Adami was sworn in as Prime Minister that same morning at 11.30am.

The counting of votes was concluded on Wednesday 13 May at 1pm – fate wanted that it took 87 hours between the end of the voting time and the end of the counting time – 87, just like the year of that watershed election.

In all, the Nationalist Party had obtained just 4,784 more votes than the Labour Party, which amounted to 50.9% of the valid votes. Perhaps a smaller margin than expected, which the PN later attributed to the favours Labour had given in the weeks leading up to the election, including the employment of 8,000 people in the public service.

The Times, at the time the only independent newspaper (l-orizzont is owned by the General Workers’ Union, and at the time the GWU had a seat on the Labour Cabinet of Ministers), described the PN victory as follows: “Malta went mad yesterday – a jamboree of noisy, cheerful Nationalist supporters celebrating their party’s electoral victory and ushering in five years of a Nationalist government after 16 years of Socialist administration.”

Well, it turned out to be more than five years.

This is the third of a three-part series that discusses the 1987 election on the 25th anniversary, its significance and its relevance today. The first part, an interview with the then Prime Minister, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and the then Opposition Leader, Eddie Fenech Adami, was published on Sunday. The second part was published on Monday.