The first unofficial result was that the PN has obtained a majority of the votes (52). People should not go out to celebrate until the result is official..

Update: lots of carcades are on all the streets now.
The result is now official. I have been filming lots of
footage of the celebrations on the streets which I will put online.

MLP leader Dr Alfred Sant conceded defeat and accepted the election result.

Voting is closing at this time all over Malta and Gozo. Turnout was very large as is usual with Maltese general elections. This figure for all Malta and Gozo was of 49% at 2pm, and the official figure was 96% at 11pm. No incidents were reported throughout all the day.
UPDATE: The day after – ballot boxes in Luqa – when will counting start?

“Read more” is not working right now as there are too many hits on the server (SOLVED 🙂 )- so I am pasting a copy here which you can see on the main page.

This time there is much more security at Ta' Qali, even the counting hall has much more security with soldiers and army officials etc. It was late after midnight when all the ballot boxes arrived.

The figure of 96% is 0.6% more than the turnout for the 1998 elections, probably indicative of the importance of the Europe issue in this election.

District Percentage
1 96
2 96
3 96
4 96
5 96
6 96
7 97
8 96
9 95
10 95
11 96
12 95
13 95

In 1996, 96.2% voted.
In 1998, 95.4% voted.
This year there was increase of 0.6%.

No exit polls are held in Malta.

Ballot boxes are currently still being opened and it
is expected that counting will begin after all boxes are opened at 9.30am this morning.

Will keep you updated and as soon as there is an unofficial result this will be posted on the main page.

There are no queues so far and everything seems to be calm everywhere.

Today was a day of reflection in Malta – the local media cannot talk about politics – a relief really – before tomorrow's general elections 2003…