Robert Abela and Bernard Grech will in this year’s general election become the fourth pair of party leaders since Malta’s Independence to face off on the ballot sheet of the same district.

Indeed, the PL and PN leaders will both have their names listed on the fifth district, which is made up of Birzebbuga, Kirkop, Mqabba, part of Luqa, Qrendi, Safi and Zurrieq – known more as ta’ wara l-mina (beyond the tunnel).

It is a district, which has had a Labour majority of 60% or more in every election since 1992, and – if the latest surveys are to be believed – that trend is not about to change this year.

While it has been known for a while that Grech would contest on the fifth district, Abela only announced it last week during a party rally in Mqabba.

He will be taking the slot vacated by Labour’s previous leader Joseph Muscat, who contested this district in 2017, and the decision will also put him against former MEP Miriam Dalli, who had initially been billed as the star candidate for this district.

Historically, it is far from the first time that the two major party leaders have gone head to head on the same electoral district. 

From Joseph Muscat against Lawrence Gonzi to Dom Mintoff and George Borg Olivier, The Malta Independent on Sunday takes a look back in Malta’s post-Independence electoral history to find out what happened when party leaders found themselves on the same ballot sheet.

 

Joseph Muscat and Lawrence Gonzi

The most recent election that the two main party leaders came head to head was in 2013.

It was on this occasion when Labour’s young, new upstart leader took on PN leader Lawrence Gonzi on his home district, which is the second district.

The second district includes the Three Cities, Zabbar, Kalkara and Xgħajra and has always been nothing less than a PL stronghold, with party veterans like Joe Mizzi, Lorry Sant and Dom Mintoff all being elected from there.

Gonzi had always contested this district, being that he is from Cospicua, but it wasn’t Muscat’s home district. This being said, Muscat did contest on the second district in both the 2013 and 2017 general elections – the only two general elections where he ultimately had his name on the ballot sheet (so far, at least).

Obviously it’s no surprise that in 2013, Muscat polled far higher than Gonzi did.  He received 13,968 first count votes out of the 16,312 votes cast for PL candidates, which equates to 85.6% of the party’s share in that district.

Gonzi, on the other hand, was the favoured choice of 4,616 voters, which is 72.4% of the party’s share in the district.

What is perhaps interesting here is that Muscat’s presence on the ballot sheet in this district appeared to galvanise support for his party in what was already a very firmly red district.

The PL in fact won the district with a 71.04% majority. This was of course an expected improvement over the previous election, where the PL won the district with a 66% majority, given that the PL won the 2013 general election as a whole by a landslide, but it was also the party’s best result in that district since 1976, when Dom Mintoff led the party (and was on the district’s ballot sheet himself).

 

Alfred Sant and Eddie Fenech Adami

Another heavy-weight match-up between two party leaders was between Alfred Sant and Eddie Fenech Adami.

This happened in the 1996, 1998 and 2003 elections, mainly because Malta’s eighth district includes Birkirkara – both Sant and Fenech Adami’s home town.

Fenech Adami has contested the district ever since he came into politics in 1971 (when Birkirkara formed part of the sixth district), but only faced a party leader when Sant took over at the helm of the PL.

By then, Fenech Adami was already a force to be reckoned with on the political scene and his presence in the eighth district meant that it was a PN stronghold – very much contrary to the present day, where the district is likely to be one of the closest in the country.

In fact, Fenech Adami led the PN to comfortable wins in the district on all three occasions where the two leaders faced off against each other on the ballot sheet.

In 1996 – when the PL won the election by 7,633 votes – Fenech Adami’s PN secured the district with a 58.91% majority, which grew to 63.13% in 1998 when the PN returned to government, before shrinking slightly to 61.62% in 2003 as the PL made some slight inroads into the PN’s advantage.

2003 was the last election where Fenech Adami contested as a candidate and the PN’s support in his district has since waned – despite the presence of the former PN leader’s son as one of the party’s candidates.

It waned to the point that they lost their seat majority in the district altogether in the 2013 landslide defeat, although it was then re-gained in the 2017 general elections – one of very few positive points for the PN.

 

Dom Mintoff and George Borg Olivier

Possibly the biggest match-up of the four, however, is when Dom Mintoff and George Borg Olivier met on the ballot sheet.

Indeed, the two political heavyweights could be found on the voting sheet for the first district in the first three elections following Malta’s Independence: those of 1966, 1971 and 1976.

While Mintoff campaigned on the second district and Borg Olivier campaigned on the ninth district – then made up of the north of Malta, including Rabat, Mdina, Mosta and St Paul’s Bay – the two party leaders faced off on the ballot sheet of the first district.

Back then, the first district was made up of Valletta, which at the time had a much higher population, Floriana and Marsa.

At the time it wasn’t a district which was a stronghold of either party. 

In fact in 1966 and 1971 it was the PN who achieved a majority, but that majority swapped in 1976 when part of Paola was included with the district, to the PL.

This was in a more general climate where the PN won the 1966 election before losing the 1971 and 1976 elections.

In 1966 in fact, Borg Olivier got 4,336 votes to his name, while Mintoff got 3,998. 

Possibly, owing to the dissolution of the Christian Worker’s Party, which had split off from the PL after the disputes between Mintoff and Paul Boffa. By 1971 though, Mintoff succeeded in eclipsing the PN leader’s vote count. 

He achieved 5,690 votes while Borg Olivier achieved 4,372 votes – although in the grand scheme of things it mattered little as the PN won the district majority anyway with doctor Herman Farrugia and lawyer Emanuel Bonnici being elected.

In 1976 however Mintoff extended his voting lead over Borg Olivier, with the PL leader achieving 6,248 votes to his adversary’s 4,645 votes.  It was enough to push the district from blue to red.