What to expect while waiting for the result

Malta goes to the polls today to elect its next government, with the counting of the ballots cast starting probably tomorrow morning. Here’s a look at what goes on behind the scenes, what to expect to see and when.

Election day

Polls open on Saturday at 7am and close at 10pm. Voters need to take their voting document with them, which they leave at the polling station. The latter, usually at a local school, is listed on the voting document. Each locality has a number of polling stations.

During the day, two representatives from the Electoral Commission and a representative from each of the two major parties are present at each polling station.

Their task is to ensure voters have their voting document and are who their ID cards and voting documents say they are. They also oversee assisted voting, a process used for citizens who cannot fill in the ballot paper by themselves.

They must also validate the empty ballot sheets with a stamp at the back of the sheets.

On the look-out

Political parties, candidates and their campaign teams have a logistically busy day today.

“In general, the political parties and the candidates’ campaigns are both doing two things: persuading people to vote and providing transport for whoever requests it,” one party official said.

“In our locality, we are prepared to transport any voter. We have vans with lifters, wheel­chairs and literally anything you can think of to take a voter to the polling station,” they said.

In smaller villages, local party committees also have people stationed to see who is turning up at the polling stations and who is not. In some cases, people who live on a certain street inform party officials who of their neighbours have voted and who have not, they said.

“That system might not work in St Paul’s Bay or Sliema but it does in Għargħur or Għaxaq,” another official said.

The political parties will also be receiving calls from disenchanted voters who are threatening to stay at home, they said. “We, local committees, will first call them and try to persuade them. If that does not work, we ask someone from a higher position to call, and so on and so on.”

Individual candidates, particularly stronger ones, will also have their own set-up, doing much of the same work, the party official said.

Electoral candidates who spoke to Times of Malta said that, besides their usual core team of canvassers, other helpers lend a hand on election day. “They are driving people to the polls and calling people.”

Three candidates who spoke to Times of Malta said they will spend the day visiting all the polling stations repeatedly. “It works. Some people are determined to vote for the PN but do not know for whom, so, just by shaking someone’s hand before they enter, you have won a vote because they then see your picture on the ballot,” one candidate said.

The night before

Once the polls close at 10pm, each polling station box will go through a reconciliation process, meaning that all the collected voting documents are counted against all the valid ballots that have been cast. Representatives from the Electoral Commission and political parties all need to give their all-clear for proceedings for every box.

Coaches then transport the boxes to the Naxxar counting hall, where the country’s focus will turn tomorrow. A second reconciliation process begins soon after their arrival at the counting hall.

The sorting process then kicks off in the early hours of the night. This process ensures that the number of votes found in the ballot boxes tallies with data supplied by polling station officials during the reconciliation.

Sunday: Counting day

A large segment of Malta’s popu­lation will tune in to television and fire up Times of Malta’s live blog tomorrow at 8am.

It is then that Electoral Commission counters begin turning ballot papers face up and showing them to the party agents, who are busy marking whether voters chose the PL or PN in their vote. They also point out dubious votes by banging on the transparent Perspex that separates them from the counting area.

Each agent then gives their chit, indicating where votes of a particular box have gone, to runners who give the raw data to the party quarters in the building.

“We take samples from each district and see where the results are going. Depending on how big the gap between both parties is, we can eventually foresee the official result,” one senior official said. Usually, the PL and PN compare their unofficial results before they publicly announce them.

In 2022, the PL declared victory at 11am.

Once there is a clear unofficial result, celebrations begin, first at the counting hall, with agents, candidates and officials banging on the Perspex and singing party chants, and then on the streets, especially near party headquarters.

Counting votes

The official counting is done electronically, with the ballots passed through scanners. The machines scan both sides of every document so as to not only count the vote but also verify that it is authentic, since ballots are stamped on the back side. This process is expected to last throughout the day and into the evening.

The two main political parties will receive updates on this process every five minutes. This data will help them predict who of their candidates is elected.

The counting is expected to last until late on Sunday, with the commission expected to give an official result for every candidate from each district in the early hours of Monday. That is when the official results, including which MPs are elected across the 13 districts, are known.

Other MPs who have not been elected can still make it to parliament if the number of elected seats does not correspond with the proportionality of first-choice votes.

Those elected on two districts will also have to give up one of their seats, opening the process of a casual election, which can take up to two weeks.

Following that process, female candidates who have not made it to parliament can be elected if parliament is not composed of at least 40 per cent women.