Voter base grows by the smallest margin in four decades
Only 2,000 more people are eligible to vote this month, compared to 2022. The last time the increase was that small was in 1987.
This month’s election will mark the first time in four decades that the size of Malta’s voter base has remained broadly the same, only rising by a meagre 1,800 voters.
On Monday, the Electoral Commission said 356,832 people would be eligible to vote on 30 May, only 1,757 more than in 2022, when the voter base was 355,075.
However, Electoral Commission figures show that the voter population typically grows by well over 10,000 between one election and the next.
In 2022, the first election in which 16-year-olds could vote, Malta’s voter base had swelled by over 13,000 people. Meanwhile, the 2017 election had almost 9,000 more eligible voters compared to 2013.
Previous elections show even bigger increases.
Malta’s voter base grew by roughly 17,000 in three consecutive elections between 2003 and 2013, while the two-year span between the 1996 and 1998 elections added more than 9,000 voters to the electoral register.
Going further back in time reveals even sharper increases, frequently topping the 20,000 mark from one election to the next, peaking in 1976, when there were 36,000 more voters than five years earlier.
The notable exception to the trend was in 1987, when the voter base was almost identical to the controversial 1981 election, rising by just 141 people.
This year’s minimal rise in voter base comes despite the 18,100 voters who will have the opportunity to cast their ballot for the first time this month.
And while Malta’s voting population has remained almost static, its population has ballooned from a little over 520,000 at the time of the 2022 vote to over 574,000 at the latest count at the end of 2024.
The change reflects Malta’s broader demographic trends, including an ageing population in which deaths frequently outnumber births.
In recent years, Malta’s population increase has been almost entirely driven by migrant arrivals, the vast majority of whom will not be eligible to vote in a general election.
Nevertheless, there will be fewer voters eligible to vote this month compared to the European Parliament elections two years ago, when just over 370,000 could cast their ballot.
Voting in general elections is restricted to Maltese nationals, unlike EP elections, in which EU nationals living in Malta can register to vote.
This means that the almost 50,000 EU nationals living in the country could have registered to vote in 2024, but will not be eligible this time around.