2pm turnout reaches 43.59%, with increases across all districts
Electoral Commission releases provisional figures which do not factor in early voting numbers
Updated 4.20pm
More than 43% of eligible voters had cast their vote by 2pm on Saturday, official Electoral Commission figures indicated.
The 43.59% approximate turnout figure does not factor in voters who cast their vote in early voting sessions held earlier in the week. More than 22,000 people voted in those sessions.
The 2pm figure of 43.59% turnout is 3.14 percentage points higher than the equivalent figure in the 2022 general election, but considerably lower than that registered in elections held before that one.
Turnout as of 2pm was higher than in 2022 in each of Malta’s 13 electoral districts.
District 1, with a 2pm turnout of 47.3%, was the district with the highest share of voters midway through the voting day. District 12, where 39.76% of voters voted, ranked lowest.
Relative to 2022 provisional figures, the biggest bump in voting before 2pm was registered in District 2 - a traditional Labour fortress district. Turnout by 2pm rose by more than 5 percentage points in that district when compared to 2022.
The smallest increase in voting turnout by 2pm was registered in District 10, where the provisional voting rate was up by 1.11 percentage points when compared to 2022. District 10 leans strongly Nationalist.
Districts 8, 7, 11, 9, 3, 1 and 6 all saw provisional turnout increase by more than 3 percentage points when compared to 2022.
The 2pm turnout figure compares favourably to the equivalent tally in 2022 - the first general election with an expanded electorate including 16- and 17-year-old voters - but falls considerably short of the 2pm turnout figures registered in other past elections.
In the 2017 general election, for instance, 2pm turnout reached 52.32%.
Voting on Saturday began at 7am and will continue until 10pm in polling stations across Malta and Gozo.