The outgoing Prime Minister in Malta, candidate of the Labor Party, claimed victory in the legislative elections on Sunday March 27. Robert Abela explained to the TVM television channel that his party had won the majority of the votes, without however providing a numerical result.
This would be the first mandate won at the polls for Robert Abela, appointed head of government after the resignation in early 2020 of Joseph Muscat, whose mandate was marred by suspicions of corruption. He was also accused of trying to influence the investigation into the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who worked on corruption.
Final results are not expected until Sunday evening or Monday morning, but the two parties that have contested power for decades, Labor and Nationalists, are relying on a reliable preliminary count. While the turnout usually exceeds 90%, it should be around 85% according to the Electoral Commission, a historically low level since independence in 1964 from Malta, a former British colony which entered the EU in 2004.