MALTA:PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS in Malta went down to the wire last night, heightening the tension in this politics-mad island state.
Exit polls suggested the narrowest of wins for the incumbent National Party (PN) of Laurence Gonzi, robbing the opposition Labour Party (MLP) of its best chance of power in a decade.
As the count continued last night, many shops and bars closed early and will remain closed today: owners say it takes 48 hours for the Maltese to let off their post-election steam.
"We've had trouble in the past with Labour supporters," said one bar owner in the capital, Valletta. "People take their politics awfully seriously here."
The weekend poll ends a dose of election fever that would make politicians elsewhere in Europe green with envy. Months of vigorous debate and scandal ended with rapturous rallies last week that rival even national soccer matches for energy and enthusiasm.
"You take a side, then throw yourself in," said one of hundreds of young people who marched, wrapped in Maltese and Labour flags, to a rally in Valletta on Thursday night.
Election turnout - estimated yesterday at 93 per cent - is the highest in Europe if not the world, driven by a historical two-party rivalry for the parliament.
That rivalry derives from an almost perfect split in the population of 400,000 on the Maltese archipelago, south of Sicily.
Helping the turnout are subsidised flights to bring home voters from as far away as Australia.
Some locals complain that officials on all sides take careful note of who has voted and who has not - and have been known to take action as a consequence.
"Pregnant women in labour are expected to control their contractions long enough to get in and out of a polling station," remarked one German expat drily.
The weekend poll was seen as a referendum on the PN, which has ruled in Malta for two decades - apart from a short 22-month Labour term a decade ago.
The PN won the 2003 election on an EU accession platform; Labour said EU membership endangered Malta's national identity. This time, PN ran on its record of joining the EU in 2004 and the euro zone last January, claiming that Labour would endanger these achievements.
Labour leader Alfred Sant focused on health and energy and claims of sleaze in state agencies.
