Voting has ended across Malta and Gozo in the 2022 General Election.
The ballot boxes from the various polling stations are being sealed and transferred to the countil hall in Naxxar.
Political campaigns ended on Thursday and, after what is known as a day of reflection, more than 350,000 voters were eligible to vote in Saturday's election.
It was the highest ever number ever to take part in an election of a government.
Some of them have already voted during early polling days, including people who are in hospital or those who are to be abroad on voting day.
It was also the first time that 16- and 17-year-olds will be voting in a general election.
Sixty-five MPs are to be elected, although proportional representation and gender-balance mechanisms may increase the number.
The election is being contested by 304 candidates, 69 with Labour Party, 70 with Nationalist Party, 10 with ADPD, 14 with ABBA, two with VOLT, eight with Popular Party and four independent.
The Electoral Commission said Friday that 14,473 voting documents were not collected, a four per cent cut from the total of 354,896 registered voters.
This is nearly double the 8,372 voting documents not collected in the last election in 2017, a 2.44% share.
The district with the most uncollected votes is the 12th, followed by the 10th and the 13th. The district with the least number of uncollected votes is the sixth.
Voting took place between 7am and 10 pm Saturday across 116 voting centres. Empty ballot boxes were sealed in the presence of officials from the political parties before voting started.
There were six centres in Malta that will be drive-through voting centres for Covid positive people and those in quarantine, and one such centre in Gozo. A separate centre was also set up at Mater Dei Hospital for people who are Covid-positive there.
On voting day, persons who are over 75 years and those in stretchers from hospital and elderly people's institutions were allowed to skip queues. Persons aged between 60 and 75 years old, were allowed to jump the queue from 1 pm to 5 pm. All other persons who are sick and unable to wait in the queue had to present a medical certificate that has been issued in order to avoid the queue, and this facility would be permitted after 1 pm. Persons presenting a special identity card issued by the National Commission for Persons with Disability were granted the same facility without the need of a medical certificate.
The counting of votes starts tomorrow morning at the Naxxar counting hall. An unofficial result is expected minutes after the process starts, with an official result expected later during the day.
The counting of votes will be done electronically, the first time it is happening in a general election. The first time this process was used was during the MEP election of 2019.
