Despite his party’s defeat in Malta’s May 31 election, Nationalist Party (PN) supporters have pointed to the strong showing by party leader Alex Borg, arguing that his own personal performance has outshone those who came before him.
Malta’s single transferable vote system requires voters to vote for individual candidates on their district’s ballot sheet, rather than simply selecting the party they wish to see in power.
The incumbent Labour Party eventually won the election, albeit with a significantly smaller majority than that recorded four years earlier.
Despite the defeat, several PN figures have argued that there is reason for optimism within the party ranks, pointing to how Borg’s vote tally topped all other candidates across the country, including that of Prime Minister Robert Abela.
Borg’s vote tally was even higher than all other previous party leaders, they said, with Borg amassing a previously unheard-of total of almost 22,000 votes.
However, examining the figures shows that, while correct, this headline figure is incomplete.
Borg leads all candidates in total votes, but not share of the vote
In total, 21,825 voters picked Borg as their preferred candidate this election, roughly 37.5% of the just over 58,000 registered voters in districts 12 and 13 where Borg ran.
Borg performed particularly well in Gozo, winning more than 12,200 votes, or 38% of the district’s entire tally.
He won 9,600 votes in district 12, securing 36.5% of the vote in the district.
Robert Abela, on the other hand, received 143 fewer first-count votes, ending the night with a total tally of 21,682.
This means Borg won 143 more votes on the day than his opposite number Abela.
However, Borg’s impressive vote tally was bolstered by his running in Gozo, the electoral district with the largest number of voters, meaning he won a lower share of votes compared to Abela.
In total, the two districts in which Abela stood had a combined total of almost 3,500 fewer voters than Borg’s, meaning his 39.6% share of votes in his district was two percentage points higher than that registered by Borg.
Borg also trails several former PN leaders in terms of the share of the vote.
Borg also received a marginally lower share of votes than former PN leader Simon Busuttil did in 2017, when his tally of 20,655 votes worked out to 38.7% of eligible voters in his district.
Both Borg and Busuttil are eclipsed by Eddie Fenech Adami’s result in 2003, when he received almost 44% of all votes in his district, for a tally of 20,471.
However, Borg far outperformed Lawrence Gonzi’s two elections as PN leader, as well as his immediate predecessor, Bernard Grech.
Grech received just 28% of first-count votes in his district in 2022, ending the election with 15,249 votes.
Gonzi, on the other hand, won a third of the votes in his districts in his victorious first election as leader, before seeing his share plummet to just 23% when PN suffered defeat in 2013.
More broadly, Borg’s performance ranked below that of most Labour leaders over the past quarter of a century, with the exception of Alfred Sant, who won just under 35% of votes in his districts in both 2003 and 2008.
However, aside from trailing Abela’s performance in both 2022 and 2026 in terms of share of the vote, Borg is also behind Joseph Muscat’s performance in his two elections as party leader.
Muscat won more than 53% of first-count votes, topping the 26,000-vote mark, in both 2013 and 2017.
