Voting has begun in Malta’s snap parliamentary election, which will determine who governs the Mediterranean island nation for the next five years.
Polling stations opened on Saturday in a contest widely viewed as a two-horse race between the governing Labour Party and the centrist Nationalist Party.
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Prime Minister Robert Abela, who leads the Labour Party, called the election a year ahead of schedule against the backdrop of the Iran war, which is impacting markets globally.
Abela reportedly fears that rising energy prices and inflation, caused by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, could weaken his party’s prospects of securing a record-breaking fourth consecutive term in office.
The economy is set to dominate this year’s election, with rising rents and ailing infrastructure at the forefront of many voters’ minds.
Malta’s public health service is also under increasing pressure following a population surge in what is already the European Union’s smallest and most densely populated country.
Opinion polls suggest Abela’s party is on course to win the snap election, with Labour dominating Malta’s political landscape during the past decade.
However, the Nationalist Party’s new leader, Alex Borg, hopes to unseat Labour and become Malta’s youngest-ever prime minister at the age of 30.
The election takes place under the shadow of the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb in 2017.
Caruana Galizia exposed corruption in Malta, with her death ultimately leading to the resignation of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
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A public inquiry concluded that the government was responsible for her death, although it found no evidence of its direct involvement.
The report said the government had created an “atmosphere of impunity”, leading those who killed Caruana Galizia to believe they would face no consequences for their actions.
In June 2025, two men were sentenced to life imprisonment for supplying the car bomb that killed her.
Election results are expected to be announced at about midday on Sunday.
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