Malta's 14th Parliamentary legislature came to an end with the calling of the general election for 30 May - and much like a diligent teacher would do at the end of a study course, one can now tally up the attendance record for the country's MPs.
Records of the 459 parliamentary sittings throughout the last legislature, analysed in detail by The Malta Independent on Sunday, show that the country's MPs were missing on a total of 5,855 occasions between them throughout the legislature.
The reasons for this were varied - some were justified, others unjustified - and the records of the MPs themselves were varied too - some missed out on over 200 sittings, while others were barely missing at all.
So how is attendance recorded in Parliament? And who had the worst record and the best record out of the country's MPs?
Absent, excused, abroad: how attendance is recorded in Parliament
An MP is listed as having missed a Parliamentary sitting at the start of the minutes of each plenary sitting, which also stipulates the reason as to their absence.
MPs can be listed as being either "Absent", "Excused" or else "Abroad" - with this sometimes specifying that the MP was abroad on government work, Parliament work, or party work.
When an MP is listed as being "absent" then it means that their absence was unexplained, and it means that they are liable to a €50 fine.
That fine, however, is only payable if an MP misses the whole parliamentary day - meaning that an MP can feasibly attend a parliamentary committee sitting and not the main plenary session, be marked as "absent" for the said plenary, and still not get fined.
A significant chunk of the absences were in fact recorded on days after the annual budget where there were two parliamentary sittings - one in the morning and one in the evening.
MPs need only attend a sitting for a few minutes in order to be counted as being present. They can arrive at the plenary, sign their name in, and leave some minutes later should they wish. It is, in fact, common for the Parliamentary Chamber to be largely empty, particularly during sittings with a lesser degree of controversy.
The worst attendees: Stephen Spiteri leads the way
Leading the way in absenteeism was Nationalist Party MP Stephen Spiteri. The popular doctor, who has been an MP since 2008, was listed as absent without justification 109 times during the legislature - almost a quarter of all sittings in the legislature. He was listed as excused a further 87 times, meaning that he missed a total of 196 sittings throughout the legislature.
The record for the highest number of total missed sittings however belonged to PN Gozitan MP Chris Said. He missed a total of 248 sittings - over half the sittings - throughout the whole legislature - 89 of those were sittings that he was listed as absent - the second highest out of the whole Parliament, with only Spiteri being marked absent more.
Said was then marked as excused for another 111 sittings and he was abroad on another 48 occasions, almost always on parliamentary work.
On the PL's side, the MP with the most sittings missed was Deputy Prime Minister Ian Borg, who missed a total of 212 sittings. However, this was primarily because Borg served as Malta's Foreign Affairs Minister, meaning that he was frequently travelling. In fact, 159 out of those 212 sittings were missed because Borg was out of the country on government work.
The PL MPs who were marked absent the most were Aaron Farrugia and Edward Zammit Lewis. Both were backbenchers and both had similar records: Farrugia was marked absent for 81 sittings while Zammit Lewis was marked absent 80 times throughout the legislature. Farrugia was excused for another 55 sittings and abroad for a further 37, making for a total of 173 missed sittings, while Zammit Lewis was excused for 18 sittings and missed another 11 due to being abroad, for a total of 110 sittings missed.
Another six MPs were then marked as absent for over 50 sittings during the legislature: Ivan J. Bartolo (65), Cressida Galea (61), Ray Abela (52), Chris Fearne (51), Chris Agius (50), and Clayton Bartolo (50).
Out of the top 10 MPs with absences, only three remain in Parliament - Stephen Spiteri, Cressida Galea, and Chris Fearne. Ray Abela is hoping to get elected instead of Carmelo Abela, who vacated his seat to become Speaker.
The remaining six - Aaron Farrugia, Edward Zammit Lewis, Ivan J. Bartolo, Chris Agius, and Clayton Bartolo - did not seek re-election last month.
The best attendees: only 3 PN and 1 PL MP registered zero unjustified absences
Out of a total of 81 MPs who held a seat in Parliament during the legislature, just four registered zero unjustified absences.
These were Finance Minister Clyde Caruana and PN MPs Graziella Galea, Jerome Caruana Cilia, and Robert Arrigo, who served as an MP in the first months of the legislature before sadly passing away in October 2022.
All four of those were either excused or abroad for some sittings during the legislature: Caruana missed a total of 86 sittings, 84 of which were due to being abroad, Caruana Cilia missed a total of 26 sittings - nine because he was excused and the rest because he was abroad, Arrigo missed 20 sittings, all of which he was excused for, and Galea missed 16 sittings - nine of which she was excused for and the rest because she was abroad.
In terms of the overall attendance, the best record is in the hands of the PN's Karol Aquilina. He missed just five sittings out of the 458 in the whole legislature - three where he was marked as absent and two more where he was excused.
Aquilina did not seek re-election last month, ending a nine-year parliamentary career. He had seemingly disengaged from politics at some point in the legislature - he did not post anything politically related on social media from March 2025 onwards, and even deleted his Facebook page; however, he continued to attend Parliament.
PL MP and then Parliamentary Secretary Alison Zerafa Civelli and PN MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici also had near-enough spotless records. They both missed just nine sittings throughout the legislature. Zerafa Civelli was marked absent for three and was abroad for the remaining six, while Mifsud Bonnici was marked absent for four, excused for one, and abroad for the rest.
The party leaders: Abela and PN leaders with similar attendance records
Prime Minister Robert Abela missed a total of 77 parliamentary sittings throughout the legislature.
He was marked as absent for 39 of those, the 19th highest out of all the MPs who served during the past term. He was then excused for another nine sittings, including the last one which was on the day that he announced the general election, and was abroad on government work for another 29 sittings.
The post of Opposition leader meanwhile was occupied by two different people during the legislature.
Bernard Grech started the legislature as Opposition leader, but he stepped down from the role after he was formally replaced as leader of the Nationalist Party on 10 September 2025. His successor was first-time Gozitan MP Alex Borg, who remains Opposition leader today.
As PN leader, Grech missed a total of 55 sittings: he was absent for seven of those, abroad for 14, and excused for the remaining 34.
Borg meanwhile missed a total of 26 sittings from the moment he was appointed Opposition leader till the end of the legislature. He was marked as absent for seven sessions, abroad for another six, and excused for the remaining 13.
This means that the Opposition leaders missed a total of 81 sittings combined - practically the same as the Prime Minister, who missed four less - although just 14 of those missed sittings were due to unjustified absences.
How do the parties compare?
When taking into account each and every time an MP was marked as having not been present at a sitting - for whatever reason - the total amount of missed sittings tallies up to 5,855.
Out of those 5,855 missed sittings across the board, 2,163 were missed due to unjustified absences - equivalent to 36.9%. MPs were excused for 1,826 sittings, while the remaining 1,866 missed sittings were because an MP was marked as being abroad.
Looking specifically at how the absences were distributed between the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party, it is clear that the PL MPs were marked as absent for more sittings than the PN.
PL MPs were marked as absent for 1,271 sittings, while PN MPs were marked as absent for 858 sittings. There were then a total of 34 sittings were independent MPs were marked as absent: these being 17 for Rosianne Cutajar, who was an independent MP between 4 April 2023 and 9 August 2024, and another 17 for Clayton Bartolo, who was an independent MP from 26 November 2024 until the end of the legislature.
If we take into consideration the fact that the PL had more MPs in Parliament than the PN, the numbers show that the average PL MP was marked as absent for 30 sittings over the course of the legislature, while the average PN MP was marked as absent for 22 sittings during the legislature.