Malta's Labour Party wins record fourth term in parliamentary election

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Published - May 31, 2026 10:27 pm IST - VALLETTA Malta's Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Robert Abela waves to supporters after the party won a record-breaking fourth consecutive general election, at the party headquarters in Hamrun, Malta, May 31, 2026. | Photo Credit: Reuters Prime Minister Robert Abela’s Labour Party claimed a record fourth successive general election victory in Malta on Sunday (May 31, 2026), riding voter confidence in a strong economy, although the size of its overall majority was reduced. “This is a victory of all the people based on the programme we presented for all the people,” Mr. Abela told reporters, saying results showed his party had “won a strong mandate”. Conceding defeat, Opposition leader Alex Borg said his supporters had cut the winning margin to around 18,000 votes from some 39,000 at the last election in 2022. “I know that for many, this is a disappointing day. But you should never regret believing in hope,” he said on social media. Full results are not due until later on Sunday (May 31, 2026), but journalists following the count said Labour looked on course to win a comfortable parliamentary majority, although with less than the 55% share of ballots cast it took in 2022. The election on the southern Mediterranean island was held on Saturday (May 30, 2026) and drew a turnout of 87.4%, slightly up on 2022. As soon as the opposition Nationalist Party conceded defeat, cheers erupted from Labour supporters at the Naxxar counting complex, with many holding up four fingers to mark the historic fourth straight victory. Supporters later celebrated at party headquarters and held traditional car parades in the European Union’s smallest state which has a population of about 5,50,000. Mr. Abela called the snap election a year ahead of schedule, citing the challenges from an uncertain international situation. Malta’s economy is among the best performers in Europe, growing 4% last year, with no real unemployment. However, the conflict in West Asia has raised concern in Malta as elsewhere of a possible spike in inflation. As a country reliant on imports and tourism, it is particularly vulnerable to the impact of higher oil prices and of costly aviation fuel. For much of the legislature, the Nationalist Party appeared divided. Mr. Borg became leader only months before the election, leaving him little time to consolidate authority or craft a fully coherent alternative vision. Six political parties were on the ballot, but Labour and the Nationalist Party have been the only ones to make it to parliament since 1966, with smaller parties garnering less than 5% of the vote - the threshold to win a seat. Mr. Abela, who succeeded Joseph Muscat as Labour leader in 2020, will be sworn in on Monday (June 1, 2026). Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Malta's Labour Party wins record fourth term in parliamentary election

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Malta's Labour Party wins record fourth term in parliamentary election

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