| Election Name: | 2024 European Parliament election in Malta |
| Country: | Malta |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | No |
| Previous Election: | 2019 European Parliament election in Malta |
| Previous Year: | 2019 |
| Election Date: | 8 June 2024 |
| Seats For Election: | All 6 Maltese seats in the European Parliament |
| Turnout: | 72.98% |
| Image1: | Robert Abela 2022.jpg |
| Leader1: | Robert Abela |
| Party1: | Labour Party (Malta) |
| Alliance1: | S&D |
| Last Election1: | 4 seats; 54.29% |
| Seats1: | 3 |
| Seat Change1: | 1 |
| Popular Vote1: | 117,805 |
| Percentage1: | 45.26% |
| Swing1: | 9.03 |
| Party2: | Nationalist Party (Malta) |
| Leader2: | Bernard Grech |
| Alliance2: | EPP |
| Last Election2: | 2 seats; 37.24% |
| Seats2: | 3 |
| Seat Change2: | 1 |
| Popular Vote2: | 109,351 |
| Percentage2: | 42.02% |
| Swing2: | 4.12 |
| Last Update: | 14:24 |
| Time Zone: | Central European Time |
The 2024 European Parliament election was held in Malta on 8 June 2024 in tandem with local elections.[1] It was the fifth election to the European Parliament. Malta will elect 6 of the 720 Members of the European Parliament.[2] EU citizens aged 16 and over were entitled to vote, provided they have registered to do so. Six different political parties had announced their participation, only 2 of these won seats in the last election those being the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party, with 4 and 2 seats respectively.[3]
| European Party | Outgoing delegation | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seats | Group | |||||
| Labour Party | Incumbent MEPs: | PES | 4 | S&D | ||
| Alfred Sant | ||||||
| Josianne Cutajar | ||||||
| Alex Agius Saliba | ||||||
| Cyrus Engerer | ||||||
| Nationalist Party | Incumbent MEPs: | EPP | 2 | EPP | ||
| Roberta Metsola | ||||||
| David Casa | ||||||
| Departing MEP | Party | EP Group | First elected | Date announced | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josianne Cutajar | 2019 | [4] | ||||
| Cyrus Engerer | 2020 | [5] | ||||
| Alfred Sant | 2014 | [6] | ||||
MEPs are elected from a nationwide six-seat constituency by single transferable vote.[7] Candidates who pass the Hagenbach-Bischoff quota in the first round are elected, and any surplus votes transferred to the remaining candidates, who will be elected if this enables them to pass the quota. The lowest ranked candidates are then eliminated one-by-one with their preferences transferred to other candidates, who are elected as they pass the quotient, until all six seats are filled.
The below parties and/or independent candidates declared their participation in the upcoming European Parliament elections listed in order of candidate quantity. Times of Malta released a final list after nominations closed.[8] A total number of 39 candidates contested this election, also a record 13 of such being independents.[9]
| Party | European Party | Quantity | Names | Election Program | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour Party | PES | 9 |
| Election Program | ||||
| Nationalist Party | EPP | 8[10] |
| Election Program | ||||
| AD+PD | EGP | 4[11] [12] |
| Election Program | ||||
| Imperium Europa | – | 2 |
| Election Program | ||||
| ABBA[14] | ECPM | 2 |
| N/A | ||||
| Volt Malta | Volt | 1[15] [16] |
| Election Program | ||||
| Independent candidates or non-registered parties | Various or Non-inscrit | 13 |
| Some of these candidates released programmes in the form of points throughout their campaigning. | ||||
ABBA started its campaign with two events organised in conjunction with the European Christian Political Movement party on 6 April 2024 in a Qawra hotel on Reclaiming the power for the member states
Four days before the election, therefore 4th June, Ivan Grech Mintoff resigned his leadership and membership of ABBA party. This comes after an open rift between Grech Mintoff and party secretary general Simon Elmer appeared on Grech Mintoff's protest method, that of egging the floor in debates he attends.[28] Nevertheless, Grech Mintoff appeared on the ballot as a member and leader of the party.
Volt's campaign began with the adoption of their joint European election programme November 2023 in Paris, which the party shares with all other parties from Volt Europa.[29] On 1 February 2024, Volt announced its Vice President Matthias Iannis Portelli as its first (and only) candidate for the European elections.[30]
| 2024 Maltese European Parliament Election debates | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Time | Organizers | |||||||||
| Labour | Nationalist | IE | AD+PD | ABBA | Volt | Independents | Refs | ||||
| 21 February | 13:00 | National Youth Council of Malta | N | PNorma CamilleriLouisAnne Pulis | N | PRalph CassarMina Tolu | N | N | N | [31] | |
| 13 March | 12:30 | National Youth Council of Malta | PSteve Ellul | PPeter Agius | N | PRalph Cassar | N | N | Arnold Cassola | [32] | |
| 22 March | 12:00 | JEF Malta | PAlex Agius SalibaSteve Ellul | PPeter AgiusNorma Camilleri | ANorman Lowell | PSandra Gauci | PIvan Grech Mintoff | PMatthias Iannis Portelli | Arnold Cassola | [33] | |
| 3 April | 13:00 | National Youth Council of Malta | PThomas Bajada | PLee Bugeja Bartolo | N | PSandra Gauci | N | PMatthias Iannis Portelli | Arnold Cassola | [34] | |
| 12 April | 9:05 | Malta Chamber of Commerce | PThomas Bajada | PNorma Camilleri | PTerrence Portelli | N | N | N | N | [35] | |
| 9:55 | PSteve Ellul | PDavid Agius | N | PRalph Cassar | |||||||
| 24 April | 8:30 | PPeter Agius | N | Arnold Cassola | [36] | ||||||
| 2 May | 12:30 | MUDU | PDaniel AttardMarija Sara Vella Gafà | PPeter AgiusMiriana Calleja Testaferrata de Noto | ANorman LowellOR Terrence Portelli | PMina Tolu | PIvan Grech Mintoff |
| [37] | ||
| 10 May | 16:00 | National Youth Council of MaltaMaltaDaily | PDaniel AttardSteve Ellul Thomas Bajada | PNorma Camilleri Lee Bugeja Bartolo A Peter Agius | PTerrence Portelli | PSandra Gauci
Ralph Cassar | PIvan Grech Mintoff A Tania Gauci Fiorini | PMatthias Iannis Portelli |
| [38] | |
| 14 May | 17:00 | LovinMalta MaltaToday | PSteve Ellul | PLee Bugeja Bartolo | N | PRalph Cassar | N | PMatthias Iannis Portelli | Simon Mercieca | [39] | |
| 17 May | 9:00 | Malta Chamber of Commerce | N | N | N | N | AIvan Grech Mintoff | PMatthias Iannis Portelli |
| [40] | |
| 10:00 | N | N |
| ||||||||
| 21 May | 11:55 | Newsbook/RTK | PSteve Ellul | PLouisAnne Pulis | N | N | PIvan Grech Mintoff | N | Edwin Vassallo | [41] | |
| 21 May | 17:00 | LovinMalta MaltaToday | PThomas Bajada | PNorma Camilleri | N | PRalph Cassar | N | PMatthias Iannis Portelli | Arnold Cassola | [42] | |
| 22 May | 21:00 | TVM | N |
| [43] | ||||||
| 28 May | 12:00 | Newsbook/RTK | PAlex Agius Saliba | PDavid Agius | N | PMina Tolu | N | PMatthias Iannis Portelli | James Ryder | [44] | |
See also: Opinion polling for the 2024 European Parliament election. It is not uncommon for smaller parties to be grouped together or excluded in polls by Maltese media houses.
| Polling firm | Sample size | ABBA | IND/ Others | Lead | Not voting | Don't know/ Invalid | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 May–04 June 2024 | L-Orizzont | 1,800 | 50.9 | 40.1 | 3.5 | 5.5 | 10.8 | 31 | 33 Invalid | |||||
| 22 May–04 June 2024 | MaltaToday | 1,007 | 43.3 | 48.1 | 1.9 | 0.6 | - | - | 6.2 | 4.8 | – | |||
| 3–10 May 2024 | MaltaToday | 657 | 49.4 | 41.7 | 8.9 | 7.7 | 30.6 | – | ||||||
| 6–10 May 2024 | It-Torċa | 1,000 | 51.5 | 40.3 | 5.1 | 4.1 | 11.2 | 31 | ||||||
| 15–24 April 2024 | MaltaToday | 656 | 50.7 | 44.2 | 5.1 | 6.5 | 29 | |||||||
| 1–13 April 2024 | Esprimi | 600 | 45.4 | 38.0 | 3.2 | 13.4 | 7.4 | – | 41.0 | |||||
| 7 March - 21 March 2024 | MaltaToday | 657 | 52.8 | 42.6 | 4.6 | 10.2 | 23.4 | – | ||||||
| data-sort-value="2024-03-17" | 27 Feb – 12 Mar 2024 | Esprimi/Times of Malta | 600 | 52.4 | 39.3 | 8.3 | 13.1 | 33 | ||||||
| data-sort-value="2024-02-11" | 26 Jan–05 Feb 2024 | MaltaToday | 647 | 47.9 | 41.0 | 11.1 | 6.9 | 37.5 | ||||||
| 26 Mar 2022 | 2022 Maltese general election | – | 55.1 | 41.7 | n/a | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 13.4 | 24.4 | 2.9 | ||
| data-sort-value="2019-05-25" | 25 May 2019 | 2019 European Parliament election in Malta | – | 54.3 | 37.9 | 3.17 | 2.7 | 0.5 | n/a | 1.2 | 16.4 | 27.3 | 2.6 | |
Polls opened and closed on 8 June at 7am and 10pm CET respectively. Following the closing of the polls, all ballot boxes were sealed and transported to the vote counting complex in Naxxar. The count was conducted between 9.30am and 10pm when the results were revealed.[45]
Heavy speculation on whether the supermajority lead that the Labour Party has over the Nationalist Party will prevail or not dominated Maltese media reports.[46] [47] Final reports showed that the Labour Party won the election again, however at the expense of its majority decimated to 8,500 votes.[48]
| Count # | Candidate | Party | FPV | FPV% | Outcome | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roberta Metsola | Nationalist | 87,473 | 33.61% | rowspan="2" | ||
| Alex Agius Saliba | Labour | 63,899 | 24.55% | |||
| George Grixti | Independent | 20 | 0.01% | |||
| Malcolm Bezzina | 37 | 0.01% | ||||
| Radu Gheorghi | 50 | 0.02% | ||||
| Stephen Florian | 57 | 0.02% | ||||
| Alexander D'Agata | 84 | 0.03% | ||||
| Noel Apap | 143 | 0.05% | ||||
| Terrence Portelli | Imperium Europa | 147 | 0.06% | |||
| Mina Tolu | AD+PD | 187 | 0.07% | |||
| Ivan Grech Mintoff | ABBA | 220 | 0.08% | |||
| Simon Mercieca | Independent | 232 | 0.09% | |||
| Nazzareno Bonniċi | 206 | 0.08% | ||||
| Matthias Iannis Portelli | Volt Malta | 298 | 0.11% | |||
| Rachelle Deguara | AD+PD | 286 | 0.11% | |||
| Tania Gauci Fiorini | ABBA | 307 | 0.12% | |||
| Ralph Cassar | AD+PD | 474 | 0.18% | |||
| Adrian Zammit | Independent | 579 | 0.22% | |||
| Jesmond Marshall | Labour | 685 | 0.26% | |||
| Edwin Vassallo | Independent | 717 | 0.28% | |||
| Miriana Calleja Testaferrata de Noto | Nationalist | 460 | 0.18% | |||
| Jesmond Bonello | Labour | 858 | 0.33% | |||
| Lee Bugeja Bartolo | Nationalist | 677 | 0.26% | |||
| Louis Anne Pulis | 657 | 0.25% | ||||
| James Muscat | Independent | 1,585 | 0.61% | |||
| Sandra Gauci | AD+PD | 2,162 | 0.83% | |||
| Norma Camilleri | Nationalist | 1,132 | 0.43% | |||
| Marija Sara Vella Gafà | Labour | 3,442 | 1.32% | |||
| Conrad Borg Manché | Independent | 5,936 | 2.28% | |||
| Norman Lowell | Imperium Europa | 6,669 | 2.56% | |||
| Clint Azzopardi Flores | Labour | 7,482 | 2.87% | |||
| David Agius | Nationalist | 5,851 | 2.25% | |||
| Steve Ellul | Labour | 9,643 | 3.71% | |||
| Arnold Cassola | Independent | 12,706 | 4.88% | |||
| Peter Agius | Nationalist | 9,418 | 3.62% | |||
| David Casa | 3,683 | 1.42% | ||||
| Daniel Attard | Labour | 11,703 | 4.50% | |||
| Thomas Bajada | 10,792 | 4.15% | ||||
| Claudette Abela Baldacchino | 9,301 | 3.57% | ||||