Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1453707
NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 FEBRUARY 2022 5 In 2017, voter turnout in the 12th district (Mellieħa, Naxx- ar, and St Paul's Bay) was 87.7% of its 27,000 voters – the low- est across the electoral map. At 50.97%, the PN won by a slim majority but higher than the 2013 result, 50.46%. The PN will expect it can fare better in 2022. In 2017, Simon Busuttil ob- tained 9,839 first-count votes in the 12th district, and 11,266 votes in the 11th district (At- tard, Mosta, Mdina, Burmarrad and part of St Paul's Bay). Tra- ditionally, party leaders attract the bulk of all first-count votes. The difference in 2022 is that the 12th district will have far less PN candidates than 2017, with just six candidates com- pared to 13; and far less than Labour's expected nine candi- dates this year. For example, candidate Salvu Mallia will not be contesting, and nor will former MP David Thake, after resigning from the House over an unpaid busi- ness tax scandal. Naxxar mayor Ann-Marie Muscat Fenech Ad- ami, who was slated for party disciplinary procedures, will not run in 2022, as well as for- mer candidate Edward Torpi- ano, Sam Abela (son of former PN minister Tony Abela), Si- mone Aquilina, Mark Azzopar- di, and Duncan Bonnici. That leaves Grech, and in- cumbent MPs Claudette Butt- igieg, Maria Deguara, Robert Cutajar, Graziella Galea, and candidate Ivan Castillo. On the fifth district, where the PN elected two MPs against La- bour's three, the party obtained 33.2% of the vote in the Labour stronghold that in 2017 had prime minister Joseph Muscat running. His successor Robert Abela will also be running in the fifth district in 2022, de- spite the constituency already hosting four incumbents with a Cabinet seat. Grech's departure from the fifth district opens questions about MP Hermann Schia- vone's future, who has previ- ously declared he will not run in 2022, technically making way for Bernard Grech's candi- dature. During the 2017 election, To- ni Bezzina captured the lion's share of PN votes in the fifth district, 4,016, with Schiavone behind him, 3,695. "I have the reassurance that in my stead the fifth district will have the party leader as a candidate, so voters will have a good choice. Bernard Grech deserves the vote of all those who backed me," Schiavone said on announcing his with- drawal from politics. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt first announced, prompting repeated calls over the years for the government to drop the deal after AUM failed to attract enough students to make a large campus viable. Such was the scale of oppo- sition against the project, that a large environmental protest by Front Ħarsien ODZ drew thousands to Valletta in 2015. AUM was also granted a campus at Bormla's Dock 1, which it will retain and con- tinue to develop. The decision that AUM would give up its title at Żon- qor was announced by Prime Minister Robert Abela on Xtra, on TVMNews+ last week. Abela only said that AUM would be given land at Smart City, which prompted ques- tions as to whether govern- ment would have to fork out compensation. The transfer of the univer- sity project to land already committed for development at Smart City is expected to close a controversial chapter from Joseph Muscat's administra- tion. Labour Party insiders have told MaltaToday that Abela is keen on putting distance be- tween himself and his prede- cessor and one way of doing so is to put a lid on some of the more controversial issues that erupted during Muscat's stew- ardship. The 12th district has the largest expected number of non-voters, which Grech will be targeting in a bid to bolster the Nationalists' vote. In 2017, the district returned three Nationalist MPs and two Labour MPs 12th district Mellieha Naxxar St Paul's Bay