Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1463105
8 NEWS ANALYSIS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 30 MARCH 2022 The third party vote: a new lease of JAMES DEBONO A total of 9,308 voters opted for third parties in the 2022 election, while 8,802 chose to invalidate their vote in an election that saw over 51,500 people not voting. This means that a massive 69,610 did not vote for either PN or PL – a staggering 19.6% of all registered voters. But despite waning political loy- alties, third parties still account for just 3.2% of votes cast. While third parties managed to improve over abysmal 2017 vote scores, with third-party votes increasing from 3,902 to 9,308 votes, they largely failed in capi- talizing on this groundswell, with more people preferring to stay at home than supporting a third party. Significantly in the first seven districts, invalid votes outnum- bered third party votes: the only exception was the third district (Zejtun, Marsaskala, Marsaxlokk, Għaxaq) where the sympathetic independent candidate Nazza- reno Bonnici 'tal-Ajkla' probably attracted the sentiment of people who in other districts spoiled the vote. But the number of third-party votes outnumbered invalid votes in all other districts, except Gozo. This was especially the case in the 10th and 11th districts where independent candidate Arnold Cassola gained 904 votes in both constituencies. In this election the share of third parties ranged from 2.2% in the sixth district to 4.6% in the 11th. On the other hand, invalid votes ranged from 2.3% in the 10th dis- trict to 3.6% in the fifth district. ADPD clearly reclaimed its place as Malta's main third party, contrary to what happened in the European elections in 2019 where the Greens were upstaged by the far-right. But in this election, the two conservative and right-wing outfits, namely the Partit Popo- lari and Abba, only attracted 1% of the vote together. A breakdown of the third-party vote by ideological orientation shows that while the progressive, liberal and centre-left lists – AD- PD, Arnold Cassola and Volt – picked 6,543 votes or 2.2% of the vote, the two conservative right- wing parties picked only 3,108 votes. This suggest that in a general election it is liberal and progres- sive voters who are more ready to break with the two-party system, while conservative or right-wing parties who generally appeal to more traditional voters are less likely to make inroads. Unlike the European electons, right-wing voters are more likely to rally behind the big parties who have more to offer in terms of patron- age and bread and butter issues. In contrast ADPD was more likely to capitalise on the increase in environmental awareness and disgruntlement with planning decisions. But both AD and the far-right have increased their vote share over 2017. AD saw its support increase by over 2,000 votes over 2017, despite competition from Volt and Cassola. Abba and the Partit Popolari al- so got 1,770 more votes than the combined sum of the Moviment Patriotti Maltin and ABBA's pre- decessor, Alleanza Bidla. Significantly, while the two right-wing parties got half their total vote from the first seven districts, only 39% of votes for progressive third parties vote hail from these districts. But AD made significant inroads in the seventh district which includes Zebbug and Attard, where the party got its second-best result (2.2%). The Greens registered their best score on the 12th district where 2.4% voted for the Greens. The anti-immigrant Partit Popolari also got their best result (0.7%) in the ethnically diverse twelfth dis- trict while the ultra-conservative ABBA got its best result on the fourth district. Not surprisingly AD's vote con- tracted on the tenth and eleventh districts, which were contested by its former leader Arnold Cassola. But the Greens got their worst result on the first district which includes Valletta and Hamrun. AD also competed with Volt, which run on a social liberal plat- form and gained 382 votes in its first showing on four districts. On the eighth and ninth districts, Volt even managed to get more votes than both Abba and the Popolari. While most third-party votes were non-transferable, the PN marginally inherits more third-party votes then Labour. And despite ideological differ- ences a significant portion of right-wing votes are also inher- ited by AD.