District 6 – where will Robert Abela’s votes go?

Most of the localities in the sixth electoral district have always been Labour leaning.

Of Luqa, Qormi, Siġġiewi and part of Żebbuġ, only Siġġiewi has seen balanced voting between the two major parties, even on a local council level.

It remains to be seen which Labour candidates will benefit from the absence of the biggest name of all from the list – Robert Abela.

He has switched from his usual Qormi stomping ground to contest the fifth district.

His showing in the 2017 election – before he was catapulted to party leader and prime minister – was moderate, with Silvio Schembri winning most first-count votes from Labour supporters, 500 more than Abela.

Roderick Galdes was also elected, making it three for Labour and two for the PN.

Labour secured 13,717 votes from the district in 2017 – 59.4 per cent.

The PN claimed 9,164 votes, or 39.7 per cent of the vote.

A small number of votes, about 200, went to Alternattiva Demokratika, Alleanza Bidla and Moviment Patrijotti Maltin.

Schembri was also elected on the seventh district, so he gave up his seat on the sixth, making way for the controversial Rosianne Cutajar, ex-mayor of Qormi, who made it to parliament through a casual...