MEP Elections 2014

On 24 May 2014, Maltese voters participated in the election of representatives to the European Parliament. Six representatives were to be elected.

The contest attracted 32 candidates, compared to 34 in 2009. The Nationalist Party fielded 11 candidates and the Labour Party 12. The remaining 9 candidates came from minor parties.

The six winning candidates were (in the order of their election):

  • Alfred Sant (Labour)
  • Roberta Metsola (Nationalist)
  • Miriam Dalli (Labour)
  • David Casa (Nationalist)
  • Marlene Mizzi (Labour)
  • Therese Comodini Cachia (Nationalist)

Half of the elected candidates were incumbents (Roberta Metsola, David Casa & Marlene Mizzi). David Casa is the only candidate to have been elected in all three MEP elections held to date. For the first time in MEP elections and Maltese elections in general, the majority of elected candidates (four out of six) were women.

Voting participation was, once again, low by Maltese but high by European standards:

Eligible Voters: 344,356
Votes Cast: 257,588 (74.80%)
Invalid Votes: 5,737 (1.67%)
Valid Votes: 251,851 (73.14%)
 

The distribution of valid (first count) votes among the parties was as follows:

Labour Party: 134,462 (53.39%)
Nationalist Party: 100,785 (40.02%)
Alternattiva Demokratika: 7,418 (2.95%)
Imperium Europa: 6,761 (2.68%)
Tal-Ajkla: 1,208 (0.48%)
Alleanza Bidla: 1,015 (0.40%)
Alleanza Liberali: 202 (0.08%)


Some Notes

Three aspects of the results stand out: First, although the Nationalists failed – as they did in the previous MEP elections – to achieve a majority of the first-counts votes, they managed to gain a third seat for the first time in MEP elections.

Second, the votes for the two AD candidates totalled 2.95% compared with the 2.34% the party had reached in 2009. The three Imperium Europa candidates totalled 2.68% compared with 1.47% the party had reached in 2009.

Third, it is the first time in MEP elections (and Maltese elections in general) where the majority of elected candidates were women. Women candidates managed to attract 34.81% of first-count votes (25% of all candidates were women), compared with 20.19% in 2009 (23.5% of all candidates were women). 

Maltese voters continue to forego the opportunity of distributing their voting preferences among different political camps. The strength of party-line voting which characterises general elections (and the previous MEP elections) continued in 2014, as can be seen in the Intra-Party and Inter-Party Vote Transfers sheet [XLS].

Detailed Counts [XLS] are also available.