Foreigners who were eligible to vote in local council elections earlier this month were far less likely than Maltese citizens to cast their ballots.

The three localities with the most registered foreign voters – St Paul’s Bay, Sliema and St Julian’s – all had voter turnouts hovering around 30 per cent, far lower than the national local council election turnout – 59.6 per cent.

The localities with the least non-Maltese voters, Santa Luċija and Mtarfa, had a turnout close to 80 per cent.

Sources from Malta’s two main parties acknowledged that the number of foreigners who cast their vote was very low.

Aside from Maltese nationals, EU and British citizens residing in Malta can vote in local council elections. Almost 100,000 foreigners have the right to vote for their local representatives, the electoral commission said. That means one out of every five registered voters was not a Maltese national.  

On the streets of Sliema and St Julian’s, EU nationals told Times of Malta whether they voted and why.

“I like Malta but I don’t know anything about the local government,” Christian Fiori, an Italian national, said as he explained why he did not vote on June 8. He argued his vote might have done more harm than good since he did not know any candidate.  

“Maltese people know better than us on this [politics],” he said. “In Italy, we know the candidates, we know the politics and everything,” the 23-year-old St Julian’s resident said.

Warren McGrath was abroad during the election but admitted he would not have voted even if he were in Malta.

“I didn’t really know much about it, to be honest,” said the Irishman, who works in the gaming industry.

The Sliema resident said non-Maltese living in Malta are not approached by Maltese politicians or encouraged to be involved in political life.

McGrath said he would have probably voted had he been approached or contacted during the campaign.

Of the seven EU nationals who spoke to Times of Malta on the Sliema promenade, only one said she voted in the local council elections.

“I was researching who was standing [for election] and I was interested to hear what difference they wanted to make in St Julian’s. It is important that everyone votes and has their say,” said Judith Wilkinson, who was walking her dog in Balluta.

The Belgian citizen said several candidates knocked on her door and told her what they wanted to do for St Julian’s. “They also wanted to hear my opinions,” she said.

Orlando Genders, from the Netherlands, believes that foreigners should not be allowed to vote, even in local council elections.

“There are too many expats in Malta compared to locals. If they voted, expats would want to make Malta more like their home instead of Malta being its own country,” said Genders, who works in marketing.

Integrating foreigners

Sources within both the Labour and the Nationalist parties said political parties failed to get the foreign vote out on June 8.

One PN source said both parties were focused on attracting Maltese voters and their campaigns were about national issues, so many foreign voters must have felt left out.

Foreigners are also harder to reach out to. Many do not follow the media and are not likely to be home when candidates knock on their doors, they said.

The language barrier is another issue, they added, especially as most political messaging is in Maltese.

A Labour official said political parties do not target non-Maltese because they assume there is little interest. “That assumption might be right, but it hasn’t been tested.”

Another PL insider said that some foreign residents are not accustomed to voting. “In Malta, most people vote but that is not the case for many of the EU’s members,” he observed.

However, deeper issues may also be at play as to why so many foreigners did not vote.

“Are we failing to integrate foreigners, so they do not feel like they are part of our communities?” a Labour official asked. PN sources made similar observations.

EU nationals who are not used to Maltese candidates and politics also need to invest time in getting to know candidates and what they stand for, and many seem unwilling to do that UoM senior lecturer- UoM senior lecturer Jean Claude Cachia

Another reason why foreigner turnout is so low might be that many have left Malta but are still registered as voters, one PN official said.

University of Malta sociologist Michael Briguglio said EU nationals who live in other member states often do not participate in local politics. Low foreigner turnout in local elections is not a Maltese phenomenon, he pointed out. “Many of those living in Brussels, for example, do not show up at the ballot box for local government elections.”

Still, political parties are missing out on a massive potential of voters when they ignore EU citizens, especially in localities like Sliema, he said.

Briguglio said several foreigners might call a particular locality home but do not vote, as a sign of protest because politicians ignore them.

University of Malta European Studies senior lecturer Jean Claude Cachia said the low foreigner turnout might be symptomatic of a general malaise towards local councils.

People say local councils have lost much of their power and councillors did not seek re-election because councils have been relegated to a government customer care department, Cachia said.

EU nationals who are not used to Maltese candidates and politics also need to invest time in getting to know candidates and what they stand for, and many seem unwilling to do that, he remarked.

Parties have also not adapted to cater for these voters, Cachia said.