Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/832512
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 4 JUNE 2017 3 News competing for 65 constituency seats, with more seats added to ensure strict proportionality be- tween first count votes and seats in Parliament. This is the 12th election since Malta gained its Independence. With 341,846 registered voters, a total of 8,372 voting documents remained uncollected – around 2.4% of all eligible votes – on par with the 2% registered in 2013. The 12th district, comprised of St Paul's Bay, Mellieha and parts of Naxxar, had the highest number of uncollected voting documents – 1,634. The second highest number of uncollected documents was in the 10th district, comprised of Sliema, St Julian's, Pembroke, Gzira and parts of Naxxar. Between assistant commission- ers and other helping staff, the number of persons involved in the electoral process reaches 3,570. PN leader tours Malta to bring out the vote Having cast his vote yesterday morning at 11am, PN leader Si- mon Busuttil spent the day tour- ing various localities urging people to vote and calling on them to urge others to do likewise. With his team posting videos on social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, Busuttil rallied the troops in various party clubs together with his deputy leaders, Beppe Fenech Adami and Mario de Marco. The triumvirate also visited a number of localities across the channel in Gozo, where the PN is seeking to elect three MPs follow- ing the loss of a seat four years ago. An upbeat Busuttil conveyed the same message in all localities, re- minding people of their right and duty to vote. "Encourage everyone you know to vote too," Busuttil said in one of the video messages. Speaking at the party's clubs in the various localities, he said it was imperative to bring out every vote. Labour reports bogus phone-calls At 9pm yesterday, the Labour Party issued a warning saying that a telephone caller was placing calls to elderly voters, purporting to be from the Labour Party. The PL said the caller, whose number it broadcast, was claiming that Labour would surely win the election and that voters need not cast their ballots. The PL urged voters to ignore such messages. Turnouts Midday and final day turnouts are always treated as indicators of the kind of enthusiasm that marked voting day in Malta, even though traditionally turnouts are always high and well above the 90% mark. Still, interpreting turnout data can often be as indicative as read- ing tea leaves. It is commonly understood that a high turnout benefits the party in Opposition seeking to dethrone the incum- bent. Or that low turnouts indi- cate that not enough enthusiasm was mustered by the party seeking government to get its vote out. The fact is that past outings show that turnouts have little effect on the final outcome of normal elec- tions. For example, in 1987 turn- out was 2% more than in 1981, leading to a narrow victory for the opposition Nationalist Party. An even higher turnout was in 2003, the year that Malta was voting to join the European Union, but this did not lead to a change in govern- ment. A change in administration took place in 1998 and 2013, where lower turnouts had marked those elections. After the 96% turnout of 2003, turnouts in 2008 and 2013 have been at 93% - last election's was the lowest since 1987. A total of 341,857 people were eligible to vote in yesterday's elec- tion with the number of uncollect- ed votes is 8,372. jbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt polls The former Labour MP Marlene Farrugia, now leader of the Partit Demokratika, which is in coalition with the PN, emerges from the Zurrieq polling station where she cast her vote