Updated 9.30pm

The Nationalist Party retook local councils in Mosta and Siġġiewi and significantly ate into Labour’s majority in a number of other councils during a final day of vote counting on Friday.

Labour celebrated its overall win in the elections – it won roughly 20,000 more votes with a 52% majority and controls a significant majority of councils – but the party was shaken as it haemorrhaged votes in multiple localities across Malta and Gozo.

In previous council elections held in 2019, Labour won by a record 47,000 votes. 

It was the second time in a week that Labour saw its electoral lead slashed, though the scale of the swing in council elections was smaller than that registered in MEP elections, which it won by just 8,400 votes. 

Speaking on Friday evening, Nationalist leader Bernard Grech said the party had achieved its targets and that it was clear that “people are clamouring for change”.

Labour leader Robert Abela noted that his party had won a 52.1% overall majority but acknowledged that voters were displeased.

“People want the Labour Party, but they want a renewed Labour Party,” he wrote on social media.

ADPD’s Ralph Cassar nabbed a seat in Attard and independent candidates Conrad Borg Manche and Nigel Holland were elected in Gżira and Floriana respectively, as independent and third-party candidates increased their vote share.

The PN gained a seat in Santa Luċija, a Labour stronghold, and managed to flip Żebbuġ (Gozo) to blue. It also increased its share of votes in various other towns and villages, including Qala, Munxar and Għargħur.

Victory in Siġġiewi, which had flipped to Labour in 2019, was greeted with cheers and placards bearing an image of social housing minister Roderick Galdes with the tagline 'Prosit Ministru! (Well done, Minister!). Galdes was responsible for an embarrassing relocation debacle in the town that left Labour with egg on its face during the campaign. 

Labour secured an additional seat in Kirkop, which is now split 4-1 in its favour, and also retained its majority in Gżira despite Borg Manche, Gżira’s former mayor, quitting the party. While he was elected, the seat he gained came at the PN’s expense.

Floriana, which in 2019 went Labour’s way 3-2, will be a hung council: the two parties managed two seats apiece as independent candidates, led by Holland, ate into the vote.

Mtarfa voted for a 20-year-old mayor in Labour's Dale Hayman. Mayors in Swieqi, Attard, Ħamrun, Qormi, Senglea, Xgħajra and Safi were all reelected. 

It was another night to remember for Luqa mayor John Schembri and Vittoriosa mayor John Boxall, two of Malta’s longest-serving councillors. The two have served for 27 and 30 years respectively.

Boxall's son, Karl, was elected mayor of Għaxaq on Thursday. 

And in Naxxar, a new political dynasty could be in the making after Chris Deguara, the son of former PN MPs Louis and Maria Deguara, stormed to the mayorship with a majority of the votes.

Please refresh for constant updates

These are the 23 councils decided on Friday:

• Swieqi - PN
• Attard - PN
• Qormi - PL
• Naxxar - PN
• Mosta - PN
• Santa Luċija - PL
• Floriana - Split
• Luqa - PL
• Senglea (Isla) - PL
• Ħamrun - PL
• Għargħur - PN
• Gżira - PL
• Kirkop - PL
• Siġġiewi - PN
• Mtarfa - PL
• San Lawrenz - PN
• Xgħajra - PL
• Safi - PL
• Munxar - PN
• Birgu (Vittoriosa) - PL
• Qala - PL
• Kerċem - PN
• Żebbuġ (Gozo) - PN

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Live blog

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Live blog ends 

9.11pm This live blog will end here, though our electoral coverage won't. We'll be bringing you a full breakdown of the results and our analysis of them in the coming days. 

Thank you for having joined us over the past week.

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Robert Abela: Voters are interested in themes, not parties

8.50pm Robert Abela is being interviewed on Labour TV station ONE, and he spoke soberly about the elections. 

"People still trust Labour to advance progressive politics. Now we have a responsibility to be the best possible versions of ourselves," he said. 

But Abela said it was clear that people had shown that "its themes, not parties that they want to see discussed". He also spoke positively about the overall sense of respect that was maintained between parties throughout the campaign and vote-counting process. 

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Confirmed: Floriana council to be split 2-2-1

8.35pm Both parties have confirmed it to us: Floriana's council will be split 2-2-1, with former mayor and independent candidate Nigel Holland as the fulcrum around which all will turn. Labour won most votes but it could not get that crucial third seat. 

Last time round, the council went Labour's way. 

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Broken bones, but electoral glory

8.31pm They say all publicity is good publicity, and that seems to be the case for Swieqi's Jordan Galea Pace. 

The young candidate made headlines for all the wrong reasons when he ended up with broken arms following a cycling mishap. But that's all behind him now - Galea Pace will serve as Swieqi's deputy mayor, we're told. 

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Labour won 40 39 councils, PN won 24

8.24pm Assuming that Floriana will end with a hung council, that means Labour has won a majority in 39 local councils versus the 24 that will be PN-led. 

Four councils ended without any single party getting a majority of seats. 

Correction 9.01pm: We previously miscalculated and reported that Labour won 40.

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Robert Abela: 'People want Labour, but a renewed Labour'

8.09pm Robert Abela has also offered his views, via social media.

"The people have once again decided and gave PL an absolute majority of 52.1% . Every locality has given us an opportunity to listen to its message. Despite this strong result, PL will remain close to the people.  People want the Labour Party but they want a renewed Labour Party."

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Bernard Grech: 'We've reached our target'

8.03pm PN leader Bernard Grech returned to the counting hall on Friday evening and said he was pleased with the way results had gone. 

"PN has reached its target and reduced a PL majority of 47,000 votes in 2019 to around 20,000. We need to continue working towards freer elections. People are clamouring change," he said. 

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Independents/third parties increase vote share

7.57pm The two big parties dominate the headlines, but there were quiet and significant gains for independent candidates and third parties, too. 

It appears their vote share has gone up from 2.2% in 2019 to 3.6% this time round. 

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Confirmed: 20,000 vote gap between PL and PN 

7.54pm We're still waiting for official results, but both parties are now concurring: Labour got roughly 20,000 more votes across all local councils, but the PN has massively cut the 2019 gap (which was its worst-ever showing in council elections). 

The gap between parties now stands at 7.8%, versus the 18.1% registered five years ago. 

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PN celebrates a rout in Mosta

7.49pm Official tallies are not yet out, but PN sources say that in Mosta - its biggest coup of the night - the party turned what was a 341-vote deficit last time round into a 1,512 vote victory this time round.

The scale of that swing becomes evident when you keep in mind that around 12,000 people voted there. 

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Swieqi and Attard mayors

7.41pm Earlier, in the rush to report we did not mention the mayors of Swieqi and Attard (both PN). 

Noel Muscat and Stefan Cordina have been reelected mayors in both those localities respectively.

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Floriana likely to be a hung council 

7.39pm Vote counting is still going on in Floriana, which is looking increasingly likely to end up with a 2-2-1 split. As we mentioned earlier, Nigel Holland could end up as kingmaker. 

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Labour sources: Councils gap ends with 20,000 votes

7.36pm Sources within the Labour Party tell us that they believe they have won the local councils elections with a 52% - 44% split. 

In vote terms, that amounts to a roughly 20,000 vote gap. 

By way of comparison, in 2019 the gap stood at 58%-40% and 47,000 votes.

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Labour retains Ħamrun 

7.31pm Labour has retained its majority in Ħamrun, with Christian Sammut reelected mayor. In 2019, Labour won 62% of the vote and five out of seven available seats here. 

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You can smell the testosterone

7.27am We were told democracy was a dignified form of government. Whoever made that claim never made it to the Naxxar counting hall. 

It's all degenerated into something more akin to a football stadium here, with both sides chanting at the other as police officers watch with bemusement. 

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Labour retains Qormi

7.23pm Labour has held onto Qormi, which it won in 2019 7-4 with 65% of the vote. 

Joseph Masini Vento has been reelected mayor there.  It seems an attempt to damage his campaign by leaking a video of him calling Miriam Dalli an "incompetent clown" fell short. 

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In Naxxar, a second-generation Deguara 

7.22pm Chris Deguara, who will serve as Naxxar's new PN mayor, is the son of Louis and Maria Deguara. Both his parents served in parliament as MPs, with his father having also been health minister. 

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Confirmed: PN retakes Mosta

7.14pm Finally, it’s official: PN has retaken the Mosta local council. After its Siġġiewi rout, it’s another significant and symbolic win for the PN.

It seems Joseph Gatt will serve as Mosta mayor. 

The party has won both battleground localities being decided today and taken control of Żebbuġ (Gozo) so far – and there are still a few councils to be adjudicated. 

As happened on Wednesday and Thursday, PN delegates erupt into cheers of "It-tsunami, it-tsunami ħej ħej", mocking former Labour PM Joseph Muscat, who likened himself to a "tsunami washing away a castle built on sand". 

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PN gains a seat in Santa Luċija

7.06pm Earlier (see our 6pm entry) we reported that Labour has once again won a majority in Santa Luċija. What we did not tell you is that it lost a significant amount of votes there - enough for it to lose a seat to the PN. 

Its council, which in 2019 was split 4-1 in Labour's favour, will now be a 3-2 one. 

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PN wins Għargħur 

7.03pm PN has retained its majority in Għargħur, which it also won in 2019 (3-2, with 54% of the vote). And it looks like it has increased its share of the vote.

Helen Gauci, the incumbent mayor, has been reelected.

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Anticipation surrounds Mosta

7pm We keep hearing from various PN sources that the party has won a majority in Mosta, reversing its 2019 disappointment there. But officially, delegates are still being cautious and have not yet formally called it. 

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Labour wins Luqa 

6.58pm Labour has retained its majority in Luqa. No surprises there. John Schembri (father of Economy Minister Silvio Schembri) will continue to serve as its mayor, as he has done for the past 27 years.

In 2019, the town went Labour's way 5-2, with 74% of the vote.

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Correction: PN holds onto Naxxar

6.53pm We reported that PN has retaken Mosta. That is incorrect (at this stage): the party has held onto Naxxar, as it was expected to do. Chris Deguara will serve as mayor, taking over from Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami, who did not run this time round. 

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ADPD's Ralph Cassar elected in Attard

6.42pm Good news for the Greens: ADPD's Ralph Cassar will be an Attard councillor. He joins party leader Sandra Gauci as an ADPD voice in local government. Gauci was elected to the St Paul's Bay council on Wednesday.

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PN retains majorities in Attard and Swieqi

6.41pm As tension rises around the Mosta desk, we can confirm that the PN has retained its majorities in both Attard and Swieqi, as it was expected to do. 

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Conrad Borg Manche elected 

6.32pm We've got it from the horse's mouth: Conrad Borg Manche will return to the Gżira local council. He has been reelected, this time as an independent candidate. 

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Labour holds onto Gżira

6.29pm A bit of good news for Labour: it has held onto its majority in Gżira. Neville Chetcuti will serve as mayor. 

Back in 2019, Labour won a 5-4 majority in the town. But its star candidate at the time, Conrad Borg Manche, subsequently split from the party and was on the ticket as an independent candidate this time round.

We still don't know if Borg Manche has been elected this time round. 

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Sources: PN poised to retake Mosta

6.26pm There’s lots of activity around table 5, where votes for the Mosta local council are being counted. Initial indications, based on samples, are that the PN could take this battleground locality. 

In 2019, Labour snatched the council off PN, winning it with a 341-vote margin. But it’s had a torrid time running it, with that Mosta Rotunda controversy really throwing a spoke in its wheels. 

Incumbent Chris Grech will be watching his back after Labour fielded its equivalent of a star candidate there in former junior minister Anthony Agius Decelis. 

The PN has placed considerable focus on the town, though, and it was the venue of one of Bernard Grech's last addresses as the campaign closed. Mosta is Grech's hometown.

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Labour wins Xgħajra

6.19pm Xgħajra remains Labour-led, as was expected. And Neil Attard has been reelected mayor.  

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Labour holds onto Qala council

6.13pm Labour has held onto Qala council, with Paul Buttigieg reelected mayor. But it was closer than they would have liked: we still don't have official vote tallies but it's clear it was a close race. 

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Labour retains Vittoriosa, with Boxall as mayor (again)

6.05pm John Boxall was first elected mayor of Vittoriosa in 1994. Thirty years later, he's still at it: Boxall got the most votes and will serve as mayor for a record ninth term.

"The work speaks for itself," he said in his first comments. 

It's a good week for the Boxall family: yesterday, Boxall's son Karl was elected mayor of Għaxaq.

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 Labour wins Santa Luċija, PN wins Kerċem 

6pm Labour has retained control of Santa Luċija, and Charmaine St John is to be reelected mayor. 

And PN has kept control of Kerċem, with Mario Azzopardi as mayor. 

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Mind the perspex

5.56pm Labour delegates appear to be especially pleased with having retained a majority in Mtarfa. So pleased, in fact, that some of them banged so hard they broke some of the counting hall perspex. 

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Labour retains Safi and Mtarfa 

5.53pm Safi remains a Labour council and Johann Mula has been reelected mayor.

Labour also keeps hold of its majority in Mtarfa. Dale Hayman will be its mayor. Aged just 20, he will be one of the country’s youngest. 

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PN celebrates taking Żebbuġ (Gozo)

5.48pm More gains for the PN: it looks like it has secured a majority in Żebbuġ (Gozo). Clive Baskal Saliba will be mayor.

In 2019, both major parties got two seats apiece, with the fifth seat going to an independent candidate, Nicky Saliba.

Saliba subsequently switched to Labour (he was on the Labour ticket this time round), so this makes it an especially sweet victory for the PN. 

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Labour retains control of Senglea council

5.45pm It was never in any doubt: Senglea has gone for Labour, which retains its 4-1 seat majority there. Clive Pulis has been reelected as mayor. 

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Labour wins Kirkop 4-1

5.38pm Labour celebrates its first win of the day: four out of five seats in Kirkop have gone its way, meaning it has widened its margin over 2019, when the council was split 3-2. Matthew Agius Zammit, 28 will serve as mayor. 

He told us he was "extremely surprised" by the result. 

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Siġġiewi margin 'of around 1,000 votes'

5.35pm PN sources tell us that they expect to have won Siġġiewi by a roughly 1,000-vote margin - a huge chunk given that there are only around 8,000 voters in the town. 

It looks like the PN was expecting this, though. Delegates came prepared with a poster of Roderick Galdes with the tagline Prosit Ministru! (Well done, Minister!). As social housing minster, Galdes was responsible for that relocation debacle we mentioned earlier. 

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PN retakes Siġġiewi

5.30pm A big win for the PN: it has retaken the Siġġiewi local council, having lost it to Labour by 70 votes in 2019. It looks like Julian Borg will serve as mayor.

Siġġiewi was one of a number of key swing localities that the party was targeting. Labour was desperate to retain it, too: so desperate that it tried to register 90 people as residents there before their homes were habitable. That backfired, badly. 

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Could Floriana end up split? 

5.25pm Floriana is shaping up to be one to watch: three independent candidates seem to have collectively swooped up roughly a quarter of all votes. 

The best performer of those three appears to be Nigel Holland, a former mayor of Floriana. But Holland’s reelection is not a foregone conclusion, as it all depends on where inherited votes will end up. 

In 2019, Floriana went Labour’s way with a 3-2 seat split. 

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Qala too close to call

5.13pm Qala native Clint Camilleri must be sweating bullets: with three boxes of votes to go, Qala remains too close to call.

Context: in 2019 Labour won it with more than 70% of the vote.

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PN confirms its San Lawrenz majority

5.04pm No surprises here: the PN has a majority in San Lawrenz. The party won more than 70% of the vote in the Gozitan village in 2019 and it looks like it will retain its 4-1 majority, with mayor Noel Formosa reelected.  

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PN calls Munxar

4.50pm The PN has called Munxar: it says it has confirmed its majority in the Gozitan town, with Damian Spiteri reelected mayor.

It looks like Spiteri might have won more than 50% of the town's vote. He told us he's honoured and humbled by residents' vote of confidence. 

The PN won a 3-2 majority in Munxar in 2019 by 35 votes (out of just under 900). It looks like they’ve done significantly better this time round and could well be snatching a council seat from Labour. 

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Vote counting begins

4.05pm And we're off. Counters bring out the first batches of votes and show each ballot to eagle-eyed party agents. Some of those take samples. Others keep an eye out for dubious votes. 

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Opposition MPs at the counting hall

3.58pm It's not just Labour figures: we've spotted PN MPs Robert Cutajar, Claudette Buttigieg and Beppe Fenech Adami here too. 

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Ministers at the ready 

3.45pm Minister Owen Bonnici, whose portfolio includes local councils, is here. He was earlier seen rallying the PL's troops at the party quarters at the Naxxar complex. Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri is also in Naxxar. Yesterday, a cross-legged Camilleri was the beating heart of Labour's sampling efforts for Gozitan councils, with the PL's agents running to him with their vote sample chits.

Camilleri will play a similar role today: there are five Gozitan localities whose councils will be determined. 

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Ones to look out for 

3.32pm Party agents are slowly filing in to take their places behind the perspex. We're less than 30 minutes away from the start of today's (final) vote counting session. 

In some of today's localities (Safi, Attard), the outcome is pretty much a foregone conclusion. 

In others (Mosta, Siġġiewi), it's much closer. Both those councils are currently Labour-led, but that might well change by tonight. 

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'Star candidates' present

2.40pm Some of the most prominent candidates are gathering at the Naxxar hall. Among them is controversial Mosta mayor Chris Grech who is hoping to hang on to his seat. But the Nationalist Party has been hedging its bets on flipping the battleground locality.

Also present is Gżira mayor Conrad Borg Manche, who also contested the European elections. 

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How are the parties faring so far?

2.20pm Our fact-checker Neville Borg compiled the gains and losses of the two main parties on Friday morning. The figures shows Labour losing ground across the vast majority of councils, with the PN making gains in many. 

You may read his analysis here. 

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What happened on Thursday

2.10pm The Nationalist Party took back San Ġwann and Msida councils and increased its vote across most localities in the second day of counting for the 2024 local elections. We had drama in Birkirkara after an independent candidate took the lion's share of the vote. 

But Labour remains comfortably in the lead, securing a majority in 27 of the 43 councils counted so far, with the remaining third to be tallied on Friday. After two out of three days of vote counting, the gap between the two big parties is 23,000 votes. 

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Round three

2pm Good afternoon and welcome to our live blog for the 2024 local council elections. We're on the third and final day through this marathon count.

The ballot boxes are being opened and electoral commission agents are putting them face down. Counting is expected to start around 4pm.