There is a deadlock on two localities, Mellieha and Zebbug, as none of the parties obtained a majority of seats.
This means that then elected councillors need to find common ground between them as to who will be the mayor.
The mayor is normally the candidate who obtains the highest number of votes among those who form part of the party which wins the majority of seats. In these two cases, none of the parties did so.
In Mellieha, the Labour Party lost one of its five seats to an independent candidate, and the outcome is now four seats for the PL, four for the Nationalist Party, and Matthew Borg Cuschieri.
Although the PN obtained more votes than Labour in this locality, the nine elected councillors will now be discussing between them who will serve as mayor.
The PN here obtained 3,031 votes – equivalent to 49.06% of the vote share. The PL obtained 2,559 – equivalent to 41.42% - while Borg Cuschieri obtained 546 first count votes.
He inherited enough from the first two candidates to reach the quota – the PN’s Gabriel Micallef who achieved 1,525 votes, and the PN’s Corinne Castillo, who is the wife of MP Ivan Castillo – in order to be elected.
Meanwhile, the previous mayor Dario Vella - who contested for the PL - was not even elected to the council.
In Zebbug, the Labour Party lost one seat to an independent candidate, which means that the PL now has four elected councillors against the PN’s three, while the other two seats are occupied by two independent candidates – Steve Zammit Lupi and his mother Lilibeth.
Even here, the councillors will have to come an agreement on who will serve as mayor.
The PL won 3,209 votes, but this is only enough to be worth 40.37% of the total share of votes. The PN meanwhile won 2,178 votes, equivalent to 27.4%.
The three independent candidates who contested won 2,532 votes between them – more than the PN and equivalent to 31.86% of the share.
Steve Zammit Lupi was far and away the most popular candidate in the locality: he won a huge 2,342 votes, and over 1,000 of those votes transferred onto his mother, which was enough to elect her as well.