The 2024 European Parliament election was held in Malta on 8 June 2024 in tandem with local elections.[1] It was the fifth election to the European Parliament. Malta will elect 6 of the 720 Members of the European Parliament.[2] EU citizens aged 16 and over were entitled to vote, provided they have registered to do so.[1] Six different political parties had announced their participation, only 2 of these won seats in the last election those being the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party, with 4 and 2 seats respectively.[3]
Outgoing standing of Maltese seats in the 2019-2024 EU Parliament
MEPs are elected from a nationwide six-seat constituency by single transferable vote.[7] Candidates who pass the Hagenbach-Bischoff quota in the first round are elected, and any surplus votes transferred to the remaining candidates, who will be elected if this enables them to pass the quota.[7] The lowest ranked candidates are then eliminated one-by-one with their preferences transferred to other candidates, who are elected as they pass the quotient, until all six seats are filled.
Participating parties/candidates
The below parties and/or independent candidates declared their participation in the upcoming European Parliament elections listed in order of candidate quantity. Times of Malta released a final list after nominations closed.[8] A total number of 39 candidates contested this election, also a record 13 of such being independents.[9]
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Nationalist Party
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AD+PD
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Imperium Europa
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ABBA
ABBA started its campaign with two events organised in conjunction with the European Christian Political Movement party on 6 April 2024 in a Qawra hotel on 'Reclaiming the power for the member states'. Two pairs of individual speakers addressed the two consecutive events which revolved around 'Sovereignty and Healthcare' and 'Education and Foreign Policy'. Romanian MEP Cristian Terheș and party leader Ivan Grech Mintoff addressed the first meeting, with Valeriu Ghilețchi and lawyer and broadcaster Emmanuel 'Emmy' Bezzina addressed the second meeting.[28]
Four days before the election, therefore 4th June, Ivan Grech Mintoff resigned his leadership and membership of ABBA party. This comes after an open rift between Grech Mintoff and party secretary general Simon Elmer appeared on Grech Mintoff's protest method, that of egging the floor in debates he attends.[29] Nevertheless, Grech Mintoff appeared on the ballot as a member and leader of the party.
Volt Malta
Volt's campaign began with the adoption of their joint European election programme November 2023 in Paris, which the party shares with all other parties from Volt Europa.[30] On 1 February 2024, Volt announced its Vice President Matthias Iannis Portelli as its first (and only) candidate for the European elections.[31]
Independents
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Maltese courts on 24 May 2024 annulled the ID card residence registration of 99 'ghost voters' who illegally changed such voter registration address to unfinished and uninhabitable flat addresses in Siġġiewi following a successful lawsuit per illegally registered voter by the Nationalist Party in opposition.[32] The legal battle involved 22 magistrates and took three weeks. This led to housing minister Roderick Galdes being disparagingly titled 'Electoral Fraud Minister' by Opposition-affiliated media NET.[33] This heavily implicates that the Labour Party stood to benefit from such voter address registration changes with also a win for said Labour Party further consolidated as such.[34]
Voting cards issued to deceased voters
Ex-ABBA leader Ivan Grech Mintoff alleged in a debate on Maltese national broadcaster Television Malta that a voter who has been dead for two years has been issued a voting card for the 2024 election, stating "F'din l-elezzjoni ħa jerġgħu jivvotaw il-mejtin" (English: In this election, dead people are going to vote again). Newsbook confirmed said deceased voter's identity and document and stated that such cases were not isolated. The Electoral Commission did not answer questions sent by Newsbook on these concerns.[35]
Similarly in August 2023, a whistleblower made claims that deceased people's identities were used to vote for the Labour Party in the 2022 general election.[36]
Polls opened and closed on 8 June at 7am and 10pm CET respectively. Following the closing of the polls, all ballot boxes were sealed and transported to the vote counting complex in Naxxar. The count was conducted between 9.30am and 10pm when the results were revealed.[51]
Heavy speculation on whether the supermajority lead that the Labour Party has over the Nationalist Party will prevail or not dominated Maltese media reports.[52][53] Final reports showed that the Labour Party won the election again, however at the expense of its majority decimated to 8,500 votes.[54]
^Stage name mistakenly reported as proper name by media. The proper name according to the official Electoral Commissioner press release — meaning which will appear on the ballot — is James Michael Muscat.[22]
^Was not part of the debate but was granted 2 minutes floor time.
^ abExcluded from calculation for the party percentages.
^Sister newspaper of 'It-Torċa', a GWU-owned newspaper, closely aligned to the Labour Party.
^Survey was candidate based, thus the quantity in 'Other' will definitely include parties listed here and might overflow 100%. Percentages brought about by combining candidate first-preference vote shares. Thus the lead percentage and winning party may not be realistic.
^Mamo, Matthew (16 February 2024). "Il-PN japprova kandidat ieħor għall-elezzjoni tal-Parlament Ewropew" [PN approves another candidate for the European Parliament elections]. Newsbook Malta (in Maltese). Retrieved 9 April 2024. Bartolo b'hekk jingħaqad mal-MEPs Roberta Metsola u David Casa, kif ukoll ma' David Agius, Peter Agius, Miriana Calleja Testaferrata de Noto, Norma Camilleri u LouiseAnne Pulis, li kienu approvati bħala kandidati matul l-aħħar xhur. [Bartolo thus joins MEPs Roberta Metsola and David Casa, as well as David Agius, Peter Agius, Miriana Calleja Testaferrata de Noto, Norma Camilleri and LouiseAnne Pulis, who were approved as candidates during the last months.]
^"Updated: PN wins all cases related to Siggiewi voter fraud - The Malta Independent". www.independent.com.mt. Retrieved 26 May 2024. Nationalist Party says that Labour Party tried to steal Siggiewi local council through voter fraud. - (PN General Secretary Michael) Piccinino said that the Nationalist Party is being careful to make sure that the election process is just, clean, and transparent. He continued that the PN opened these cases to ensure that the electoral registry is one which reflects reality. He added that everything which the government has done in this situation deserves to be condemned, and that the PL tried to steal the Siggiewi local council.
^""Ħa jivvutaw il-mejtin" – Ivan Grech Mintoff" ["The dead are going to vote" – Ivan Grech Mintoff]. Newsbook.com.mt (in Maltese). Newsbook Malta ra b'għajnejh id-dokument u jikkonferma li mhux każ iżolat. [Newsbook Malta confirmed with its eyes the document and confirms that this is not an isolated case.]
^[httpss://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2024-03-22/local-news/MEP-candidates-differ-in-opinions-on-environmental-priorities-and-migration-in-University-debate-6736259629 "MEP candidates differ in opinions on environmental priorities and migration in University debate - The Malta Independent"]. www.independent.com.mt. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
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