Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1313950
7 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 2 DECEMBER 2020 NEWS next electoral battleground? 1969, the party managed to double its vote scoring 44.8% in 1971. Support for the PL was to slip again by 5% in the following decade, with the party registering one of its lowest ever Gozitan results in the 1981 election. Surprisingly, led by incumbent Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, support for Labour in Gozo defied the national trend which saw the PN win- ning the election with a slim absolute majority amid a tense political climate marked by economic decline, violence and institutionalised corruption. Labour's surge in Gozo could well be an indication that by 1987 the Labour Party had built strong patronage net- works in Gozo. But after being elected it was the PN, which managed to increase its majority in Gozo by five percentage points from 1987 to 1992 thanks to the economic boom and the appointment of Gozo's first Minister Anton Tabone. The PN's increase in Gozo corre- sponded to the national trend which saw the PN widening its gap with La- bour from a sheer 4,000 votes in 1987, to 13,000 nationally. But following the first signs of eco- nomic decline, Labour saw its share of the vote increase by 5% in the 1996 election, which lead to Alfred Sant be- coming PM. While Labour increased its share of the vote by four percent- age points on a national level, in Gozo it managed to increase its vote by five points. On the other hand, the premature fall of Alfred Sant's government dur- ing which the Gozo ministry post was removed, saw the party losing three points in Gozo as the PN was returned back to government with Giovanna Debono as Gozo minister. This also coincided with a spike in planning per- mits and increased concern on over de- velopment, which saw the Greens mak- ing limited inroads at local level. The 2003 election saw Labour losing a further two points, dipping to 40.8% - its worst result in Gozo since 1992. This corresponded with a strong affir- mation of the 'Yes' vote in Gozo in the EU referendum. The Nationalist decline in Gozo com- menced in 2008 when with Labour win- ning 42.9% of the Gozitan vote – an increase of two percentage points over its 2003 tally. But Labour still underper- formed in Gozo and ended up losing the national election by 1,500 votes. Labour had actually recovered its 1998 level of support but its result was still 3% below the 46% gained in 1996. This suggests that Gozitans did not warm up to Sant again following the 1998 debacle. Labour was to score its most spectac- ular result in 55 years just a year after its electoral defeat, when led by Muscat in MEP elections in 2009 it scored 48% against the PN's 47.5%, thus becoming Gozo's first party. Yet the PN still clinched a wafer-thin relative majority of votes in 2013. It was only in 2017 that after five years in power the PL once again increased its votes to clinch an absolute majori- ty of votes in Gozo. The result came in the wake of spike in government jobs in Gozo. This suggests that in order to narrow the gap in the next election Bernard Grech has to win Gozo again from the PL. On the other hand if Abela retains the same level of support in Gozo, he is also likely to retain Labour's national advantage. 1971 1976 1981 1987 1992 1996 1998 2003 2008 2013 2017 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 44.8% 54.2% 43.2% 56.8% 40.7% 59.2% 45.8% 54.2% 40.4% 58.9% 45.5% 53.7% 42.8% 56.5% 40.8% 58.8% 42.9% 55.4% 48.9% 49.9% 51.2% 47.9% PL PN Parties' Gozo vote shares in general elections