The Nationalist Party will have emerged much happier from the first day of the counting of local council election votes that the Labour Party, as the party made gains in almost every locality that was counted.

The results for 23 local councils were counted on Wednesday evening, including some key localities such as St Paul’s Bay, Mellieha, and Valletta and other comfortable strongholds such as Zejtun, Tarxien and Marsa for the PL and St Julian’s and Balzan for the PN.

The PL held onto Valletta and won the tiny Gozitan village of Ghasri for the first time ever, but that’s where the positives end.  The PN meanwhile won St Paul’s Bay and became the biggest party in Mellieha, where an independent candidate was elected, causing a deadlocked council.

If we consider the vote tallies 23 localities counted on Wednesday back in 2019, the PL had won 50,806 votes while the PN won 30,751 votes – a gap of 20,055 votes.

This year, in the same localities the PL won 45,790 votes, while the PN won 34,032 votes – thus leaving a gap of 11,758 votes, 8,297 votes less than five years ago.

The PN therefore gained 3,281 votes on its previous tally in the same localities, while the PL lost 5,016 votes as independent candidates and ADPD left an impact on their tally as well.

PN gains as support creeps up

The PN registered gains in votes in all localities except for Marsa, Ghasri, and Valletta.

In Marsa, a heavy PL-stronghold, the party lost 42 votes, but still gained 1.08% on its vote share when compared to 2019 as the turnout dropped.

In Ghasri, the only locality which the PL won outright from the PN on the first day of counting, the PN lost 27 votes while the PL gained 73 causing a swing of 26% in the small village.

PN sources had been expecting to lose this locality, with one telling The Malta Independent before counting began that the locality had effectively switched to the PL already after the PN mayor Daniel Attard (no relation to the newly MEP) elected in 2019 defected to the PL in the run-up to the 2022 general election. He was re-elected as mayor, this time for the PL.

The PN may be disappointed with its performance in Valletta as it failed to make any inroads despite discontent surrounding the uncontrolled spread of businesses into Valletta’s streets.  Here the PN lost 370 votes on 2019 as its vote share dropped by 7.25% to 38.68% - its worst showing in the locality in history.

It was altogether better news elsewhere however as even in strongly PL-leaning localities, the PN made gains.  In fact, the PN won an additional seat in Birzebbuga, Zurrieq, Xewkija, Dingli and Qrendi – all strongly PL-leaning localities – and came within a whisker of winning the Pembroke local council outright.

The result in Pembroke, where the PN was just 42 first count votes behind the PL and where the PL’s final seat was won by just 8 votes, was still a record for the party as it secured 48.86% of the vote share.

The closest it had ever come to winning a majority in Pembroke was in 2008, when with 45.06% of the votes the PN was still 189 votes short of the PL.

Zurrieq saw a significant swing towards the PN as well, as they party gained 499 votes when compared to 2019.  It still meant that it had a vote share of just 29.42% in the locality: but that’s the party’s highest tally since 2008 as well.

A gain of 170 votes in Qrendi meant that the party’s share there increased by 9.15% to 37.22% - almost identical to the result registered there in 2012, and a gain of 202 votes in Mqabba reversed a trend which saw the PL gaining support in the locality in the past two elections in 2013 and 2019.  The vote share of 44.32% was a gain of 8.32% and is the best result the party had since it first lost the council in 2013.

Without a doubt the biggest positive that the party will have seen is in St Paul’s Bay, as it won the locality back from PL control.  Here, the party gained a huge 754 votes compared to 2019 as it increased its vote share by 7.23%.

Another major positive for the party will be in Mellieha, even if it fell short of winning a majority in seats.

Here, the PN gained 265 votes and had a vote share of 49.06%, making it the biggest party in the locality as independent candidate Matthew Borg Cuschieri dined on the PL’s votes.  That is the best share that the party has registered in the locality since 1999 – which was also the last time it was the biggest party there too.

The PN will also be buoyed by performances in stronghold localities.

The party’s vote share in Nadur increased to the party’s second-best performance (only in 2005 did the PN have a more commanding majority), and the same can be said about St Julian’s, where with 66.6% of the vote this was just short of the PN’s record vote share of 66.86% registered in 1999.

It was also the party’s best performance in Ghajnsielem – where the PN achieved a majority share of 70.73% - since 2002.

Finally, it was a record performance for the PN in Iklin: a gain of 110 votes on 2019’s performance meant that the party now has 64.8% of the vote share – the highest it has registered since local council elections began.

What goes up must come down, as the PL finds out

It was an extraordinary result in the 2019 local council elections, where the PL won several localities for the first time and increased its vote shares in many others as well, so perhaps the party would have been expecting to take some pain coming into this year’s election.

But it would have surely been hoping for the pain to not have been as widespread.

Where the PN made gains in all but 3 localities, the PL lost votes in 20 out of 23 localities.

The 3 localities where the party did register gains in terms of the number of votes when compared to 2019 were Ghasri (73 votes), Ghajnsielem (4 votes), and Nadur (just 1 vote).

In Valletta, the party increased its vote share to a record high but still lost 78 votes when compared to 2019 – although this could be related to a drop in turnout as Valletta’s population has decreased since then.

Support for the party remained stable – though there were minor vote losses – in Tarxien (26 votes lost), Ta’ Xbiex (64 votes lost) and Marsa (119 votes lost – but population decrease meant that the vote share rose by 4.64% to 77.49%).

But there were worrying signs elsewhere.  In Birzebbuga the party lost a huge 626 votes as its vote share dipped by 8.39% to the lowest it has been since 2001, while the party lost 545 votes in St Paul’s Bay for a similar share drop of 8.6% to mark the party’s worst performance here since 2002.

The PL lost 284 votes in Mellieha (a dip of 7.04%), 281 votes (a dip of 9.63%) in Pembroke, 122 votes in Qrendi (a dip of 6.76%), 143 votes in Mqabba (a dip of 8.32%), 244 votes in Dingli (a dip of 8.51%), 201 votes in Iklin (a dip of 8.31%), and 359 votes in Zejtun (a dip of 3.51%).

The party meanwhile lost 545 votes in St Paul’s Bay as it lost not one, but two seats in the locality and with them majority control.  With just 41.52% of the votes won there, it is the PL’s worst showing in the locality since 2002.

However, no loss will come as close to that suffered in Zebbug, as the PL’s vote share was decimated by independent candidates Steve Zammit Lupi and his mother Lilibeth.

Here, the PL lost a huge 1,285 votes – and majority control of the council – as both Steve and Lilibeth Zammit Lupi were elected.  For comparison, rather than losing to the independent candidates, the PN gained 72 votes in the locality.

The PL’s vote share dipped by 18.49% for what is the party’s worst performance in the locality in historical record by far, and the first time that it doesn’t have a majority.

Some new – and some old – faces make it to council

There were some new faces to the leadership posts in various councils, but other mayors managed to retain their spots.

In PN-led localities, Guido Dalli, Edward Said, Angelo Micallef, Dorian Sciberras, and Kevin Cauchi all retained the mayorships in St Julian’s, Nadur, Balzan, Iklin and Ghajnsielem.

In PL-led localities, Max Zammit, Joseph Abela Galea, David Michael Schembri, Grace Marie Zerafa, Scott Camilleri, Rita Grima, and Raymond Schembri were all re-confirmed as mayors in Ta’ Xbiex, Tarxien, Qrendi, Mqabba, Birzebbuga, Zurrieq, and Dingli respectively.

In St Paul’s Bay, a familiar face will become mayor after the PN won the council majority.  Censu Galea (pictured above), who served as an MP between 1987 and 2017 and as a minister under various Nationalist governments will be the mayor over there as he scooped up around half of the PN’s votes in the locality.

Former PL mayor Alfred Grima – who had to be convinced to re-contest – will be the party’s minority leader, while ADPD leader Sandra Gauci won a historic seat for her party in this locality as well.

In Valletta, new candidate Olaf McKay (pictured below) was elected as mayor as he beat both previous mayor Alfred Zammit and previous deputy mayor Raymond Azzopardi to the post.  McKay only got 32 votes more than Zammit, but it was enough.

Kaylon Zammit will be the new mayor of Pembroke after previous mayor Dean Hili did not recontest for his seat, while Joan Agius will be the new mayor of Zejtun after Doris Abela did not recontest her seat either.

In Santa Venera, it will be a reversal of roles as Gianluca Falzon – who was deputy mayor in the last term – will now take over as mayor after he won more first count votes than current mayor Stephen Sultana, who will now be deputy mayor. The PN also has a new minority leader in this locality in the form of Karl Carabott – the brother of the now PN MP Darren Carabott.

A somewhat surprise result in Marsa meanwhile, as 24-year-old first time candidate Luke Farrugia will be appointed as mayor.  He won 818 first count votes while the now previous mayor Josef Azzopardi won 775. 

In Gozo, Daniel Attard (not the MEP) will retain his seat as mayor in Ghasri, but this time he has been elected as a PL councillor, rather than a PN councillor, Xewkija will see a new mayor in the form of Simona Refalo – the daughter of Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo, and Fontana will have Thomas Mizzi as the new mayor of a PN-led council.

That leaves two localities – Mellieha and Zebbug – where neither of the major parties have a seat majority.

In Mellieha, the PN is now the biggest party but has 4 seats out of 9, while the PL has the same amount. Independent Matthew Borg Cuschieri won the remaining seat. 

What is certain is that the locality will not have the same mayor: the PL’s Dario Vella served as mayor between 2019 and last week but he was not even elected to the council itself yesterday.  The PN’s Gabriel Micallef meanwhile was the best performing candidate, achieving double the requisite quota to be elected.

Zebbug is even more up in the air: the PL here holds 4 seats, the PN holds 3, while independent candidates Steve and Lilibeth Zammit Lupi hold the remaining two.

Steve Zammit Lupi – who was already elected as an independent candidate in 2019 – achieved an incredible 2,342 first count votes (more than the PN’s 5 candidates combined), and he is hopeful that this will be enough for him to be appointed as mayor.

The identity of the new mayor will be decided by the new councillors themselves in their first meeting.