The roughly 50,000 people who did not vote in last weekend's general election had sent a message out to politicians of all parties, Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech said on Saturday. 

Grech said the PN would be analysing last weekend’s general election result. He was speaking in a short interview on party-owned NET FM, in what was his first public address since the party's landslide electoral defeat. 

Turnout for the general election reached 60-year lows, with the number of invalidated ballots also doubling from the previous election.

Grech said the high level of abstentions was a message not only for PN but for all politicians, because people were showing that they had lost faith in the country’s political system. He said he was determined to understand this message and help restore people’s faith in the political system.

Grech said that the PN had a duty towards the 120,000 people who had voted for the party and who want an effective opposition. He said the party will continue its strengthening process which the party embarked upon 17 months ago when he took over the party’s leadership.

He said his main aim was that of uniting the party, something which he believed had been achieved. The party had also started a process of regeneration which saw the party introducing new candidates to politics. This was well-received by the electorate which elected a number of fresh faces to parliament.

Grech said the party will continue its regeneration, even through restructuring exercises where needed so that PN once against becomes a winning party.

"PN has a great future ahead of it," he said. 

On the papal visit, Grech said this was a wonderful moment that gave the country and its people an opportunity to put aside political differences and follow one leader, a man considered by many to be our spiritual father. He encouraged everyone to participate in the papal visit.