Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/321747
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 JUNE 2014 News 15 Cross-party voting minimal in MEP elections JAMES DEBONO CROSSPARTY voting was mini- mal among voters for the two major parties but was more frequent and casual among third party voters. This emerges from a table pub- lished on the Malta Elections web- site, which is run by a group of uni- versity academics. The table shows that PL and PN voters closed ranks in these elec- tions largely obeying directives to vote for their respective block. The least likely to transfer their vote were those who gave their first preference to Alfred Sant. Since Alfred Sant was elected im- mediately after surpassing the quota, 12,000 of his votes were transferred to other candidates. 98% of these voters gave their second preference to Labour Party candidates. Only 0.4% of Sant's votes went to the PN while 1.6% went to other parties. This does not exclude the pos- sibility that these voters may have switched to other parties after giv- ing their first two preferences to Labour candidates. But transfers from other candi- dates who on their part inherited votes from Alfred Sant and other candidates, indicate that this was rarely the case. For example, less than 1% of De- borah Schembri's votes were inher- ited by the PN, while only 1.7% were inherited by AD. And in another indication of the solidity of the Labour vote, 97% of Charlon Gouder's votes were in- herited by other Labour candidates. Since Gouder was eliminated on the 20th count his tally-included votes he had inherited from other Labour candidates. In the PN camp, the most likely to cross-vote were those who voted for Helga Ellul and Jonathan Shaw, who were eliminated together. While Labour candidates inher- ited 2.7% of these votes, the Greens inherited 3.2%. Only 0.8% of these PN voters voted for Lowell's ex- treme right. 94% of Stefano Mallia's votes also stayed within the PN's fold. In the PL camp, the most likely to cross vote were Ivan Grixti voters, 4% of which continued on the PN while another 4% voted for other parties. On their part, IE voters were the least likely to continue voting for their own party. Nearly one-fourth of those who gave their first pref- erence to Arlette Baldacchino or Antoine Galea did not continue on Norman Lowell. On the other hand, more solidar- ity was shown among AD voters. 85% of Carmel Cacopardo's voters continued on Cassola. When he was eliminated on the 21st count, nearly half of Cassola's votes (47%) were non-transferable. This further indicates how nearly half of Green voters ignore the par- ty's pleas in favour of cross-party voting. Of the remaining half, 21% con- tinued on to Labour candidates and 31% continued on to PN candidates. Since Cassola was eliminated at a very late stage, his tally included votes inherited from other parties, including 900 odd votes from Low- ell. The majority of Lowell's votes were also non-transferable (47%). Of the remaining votes, 26% went to Labour, 14% went to the PN and 13% made an impressive ideological leap to AD. Still a substantial number of these ideologically confused voters did not casually shift from Lowell to Cassola. Some of them had expressed pref- erences for other independents be- fore marking Cassola. Yet by the time of Lowell's elimination, all these candidates had been elimi- nated. The bigger parties only inherited a quarter of Nazzareno Bonnici's 1,307 votes, with the PL taking the lion's share. While 15% of these votes went AD's way, 17% went to Norman Lowell's party. Ivan Grech Mintoff's 1,005 vote bounty was also evenly split, with the PN getting the smallest share (11%) and the PL the bigger share (21%). The Malta Elections website is run by a group of academics from the University of Malta. The website was originally created and for many years administered and compiled by Pro- fessor John Lane (State University of New York), who recently handed it over to the university. Secure Investment Secure Investment Issue of Issue of ¤100,000,000 100,000,000 in in Malta Government Stocks Malta Government Stocks (subject to the over (subject to the over-allotment option of allotment option of an additional sum of an additional sum of ¤80,000,000 0,000,000 MALTA GOVERNMENT MALTA GOVERNMENT STOCKS STOCKS _______ _______ (i) 4.3% M 4.3% Malta alta Government overnment Stock tock (First Issue) (First Issue) maturing in 2033 maturing in 2033 at at ¤100.75 100.75 with a YTM of with a YTM of 4.242% 4.242% (which corresponds to an (which corresponds to an annualised annualised rate of rate of 4.287%) 4.287%). 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