The number of invalid votes cast in Saturday’s general election reached a record high and more than doubled from the previous elections.

According to the information released by the Electoral Commission, there were 8,802 invalid votes, equivalent to 2.9 per cent. 

In the 2017 election, there were 4,031 invalid votes, or 1.3 per cent.

The same percentage were invalid in the 2013 while invalid votes in the 2008 and 2003 elections were 1.2 per cent and one per cent, respectively. The rise in invalid votes points towards voter disillusionment.

The record number of invalid votes combined with the record-low turnout and those who did not bother collecting their voting document in the first place means that around 60,000 people did not exercise their right to vote.

The district with the highest number of invalidated votes was the seventh, made up of Żebbuġ, Dingli, Mġarr, Mtarfa, Rabat, Baħrija and Tal-Virtù.

In district seven, 901 votes cast were ruled invalid.

Sources at the counting hall, who were analysing votes as they were being sorted, said that most of the votes declared invalid was because the voter did not use a numerical order but gave a 1 or a 0 to all candidates.

There were a number of votes invalidated due to messages written across the document.

One particular document had the word “korrotti” (corrupt) written across the names of Labour candidates and “inkompetenti” (incompetent) written across the names of Nationalist Party candidates.

Another disgruntled voter drew a large face with a tongue out across Labour candidates, along with the phrase: "Look after Labourites, not opportunists". 

The next district with the largest portion of invalid votes was the fifth, with 847, followed by the 13th district, Gozo, with 844.

Other districts saw between 500 and 700 invalid votes, with the district having the lowest number of invalid votes being the 10th with 499.

 

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.