2,376 voting documents not collected - Maltese to choose their next government today - 177 candidates contesting • Leaders face each other in 8th district

<a href=www.independent.com.mt>Independent On line Web posted on April 12, 2003 at 9:00:00 AM CET Sandra Aquilina

Malta will go to the voting booths for the second time in two months today.

The Electoral Commission said the number of voters for today’s election totalled 294,106. A total of 2,376 voting documents were not collected compared to around 1,800 in 1998.

In addition, just under 1,500 people have died of the 297,930 listed on the March electoral register, which was up from the 297,860 listed in the October 2002 register.

A total of 177 candidates are contesting today’s election. The Nationalist Party is fielding the largest number of candidates – 84 – while the Malta Labour Party has 77 candidates. A total of 15 candidates will contest on an Alternattiva Demokratika ticket and one independent candidate is contesting for the third district.

Economist Victor Zammit, who has cast his nomination on behalf of the Ghal Gid ta’ Ghawdex group, will not be contesting after a court ruled he was ineligible as he was not a registered voter and that there was a definite obstacle to his candidature.

A total of 70 candidates will be contesting the election in two districts, bringing the total number of nominations to 247. The sixth district has the lowest number of candidates contesting, with 14 candidates, while the ninth district has the highest at 23.

The eighth district will see a battle between the three leaders – Eddie Fenech Adami (PN), Alfred Sant (MLP) and Harry Vassallo (AD).

Just five weeks ago, the electorate was called out to the polls to vote in the referendum on European Union membership Voting hours will remain the same, with Maltese and Gozitans being able to vote between 7am and 10pm. The electoral commission has announced that people over 70 will be given precedence in the voting booths. People over 60 will be allowed to go the head of the jump the queues on presentation of their kartanzjan between 1pm and 5pm. The same will apply to people suffering from an illness on presentation of a medical certificate.

More than 3,000 electoral commissioners and assistant commissioners voted at Ta’ Qali yesterday as they will be manning the polling booths today.

After 10pm the boxes will be sealed and taken to Ta’ Qali where they will be sorted and the counting – after the reconciliation – will begin. This procedure is expected to take a number of hours.

The Electoral Commission did not give any indication of when the initial results will be issued. In past elections, results started trickling out early in the afternoon of Sunday.

The Department of Information will be publishing the official results of the general election on its website www.doi.gov.mt. First to be published this evening will be the percentage turnouts in all the electoral districts. The official results of all the counts of each district will continue to be updated until the end of the counting process.

State television station PBS, Nationalist station Net TV and Labour Party channel Super One are expected to give live coverage of the events as they unfold at Ta’ Qali.

Results in Malta in previous elections have been perilously close, with the MLP winning with 50.7 per cent of the votes in 1996, and the PN garnering 47.8 per cent of the votes.

Tables were turned in 1998 when the PN won the election with 51.8 per cent of the votes, while the MLP took 47 per cent.

AD managed 1.46 per cent of the votes in 1996 and 1.21 per cent in 1998.

And while the Maltese and Gozitan people will be flocking to the voting booths, other events of international importance will be happening elsewhere in the world.

Hungarians will also be heading to the polls to vote in a referendum on EU membership.

There will be a national anti-war demonstration in Rome and a Stop the War Coalition will try to organise another mammoth march against the Iraq conflict. Protests are also planned in Italy, Denmark, Sweden and other countries.

In Caracas, Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez will hold a democracy forum to mark the first anniversary of the military coup that ousted him, albeit briefly. There will also be legislative elections in Abuja, Nigeria.