Voter Participation, 1993 - 2007
Voter turnout in Maltese elections has been remarkably high in parliamentary
elections, generally exceeding 90 percent of the registered voters. The local council
elections, however, have produced substantially lower voter participation. Yet they
are high by comparison to local elections in most Western democracies.
In the tabulations here, voter turnout is measured by the percentage of all
registered voters who cast valid votes.
Table 1 shows that turnout has tended to be below 70 percent, with a low of 60.96% in the
second round of elections. The exception is the fourth round, with a turnout of 78.24%,
after which the turnout rate returned to the earlier range.
The reason for this surge in the fourth round was that in two of the years, 2003 and 2004,
local elections were held simultaneous with national polls: Parliamentary elections in
one year and elections to the European Parliament in the second.  National contests,
as noted above, attract a higher percentage of voters. (A notably higher percentage
of voters in 2003 and 2004 cast invalid votes in the local elections but not in the
simultaneous national contests.)
Table 1: Voters and Votes Cast, by Electoral Round
				Vote Totals				Percent of Registered Voters:
				Registered	Votes	Valid	Invalid	Votes	Valid	Invalid
Round		Years		Voters	Cast	Votes	Votes	Cast	Votes	Votes
First Round		1994, 1994		265,880	182,033	172,193	9,840	68.46	64.76	3.70
Second Round		1996 1997 1998		271,800	172,082	165,689	6,393	63.31	60.96	2.35
Third Round		1999 2000 2001		288,927	203,965	198,275	5,690	70.59	68.62	1.97
Fourth Round		2002 2003 2004		302,920	247,452	236,998	10,453	81.69	78.24	3.45
Fifth Round		2005 2006 2007		304,692	203,568	196,813	6,775	66.81	64.59	2.22
When one examines the rate of turnout according to the size of the local councils,
a pattern emerges: As council size increases, participation decreases. Thus, in localities
with five seats have a consistently higher percentage of valid votes than localities with seven
or more seats. Table 2, below, shows the pattern clearly.  It also shows another curious
aspect, namely, that the smaller the communities the larger tends to be their percentage
of invalid votes.
Table 2: Voters and Votes Cast, by Council Size
				Vote Totals				Percent of Registered Voters:
				Registered	Votes	Valid	Invalid	Votes	Valid	Invalid
Five-Seat Constituencies:				Voters	Cast	Votes	Votes	Cast	Votes	Votes
First Round		1994, 1994		59,187	43,931	41,347	2,584	74.22	69.86	4.37
Second Round		1996 1997 1998		51,759	37,105	35,280	1,825	71.69	68.16	3.53
Third Round		1999 2000 2001		62,896	48,604	47,074	1,530	77.28	74.84	2.43
Fourth Round		2002 2003 2004		67,976	56,851	54,355	2,496	83.63	79.96	3.67
Fifth Round		2005 2006 2007		75,523	53,523	50,994	2,067	70.87	67.52	2.74
Seven-Seat Constituencies:
First Round		1994, 1994		97,696	65,410	62,120	3,290	66.95	63.58	3.37
Second Round		1996 1997 1998		107,142	66,614	64,082	2,532	62.17	59.81	2.36
Third Round		1999 2000 2001		104,900	71,419	69,430	1,989	68.08	66.19	1.90
Fourth Round		2002 2003 2004		103,264	81,435	78,158	3,276	78.86	75.69	3.17
Fifth Round		2005 2006 2007		103,026	67,571	65,377	2,194	65.59	63.46	2.13
Largest Constituencies:
First Round		1994, 1994		108,997	72,692	68,726	3,966	66.69	63.05	3.64
Second Round		1996 1997 1998		112,899	68,363	66,327	2,036	60.55	58.75	1.80
Third Round		1999 2000 2001		121,131	83,942	81,771	2,171	69.30	67.51	1.79
Fourth Round		2002 2003 2004		131,680	109,166	104,485	4,681	82.90	79.35	3.55
Fifth Round		2005 2006 2007		129,143	82,956	80,442	2,514	64.24	62.29	1.95