1962 Maltese general election

1962 Maltese general election

←  1955 17–19 February 1962 1966  →

First party Second party Third party   CWP Leader George Borg Olivier Dom Mintoff Toni Pellegrini Party Nationalist Labour Christian Workers' Last election 40.21%, 17 seats 56.73%, 23 seats New Seats won 25 16 4 Seat change 8 7 New Popular vote 63,262 50,974 14,285 Percentage 42.00% 33.85% 9.49%   Fourth party Fifth party   PDN Leader Herbert Ganado Mabel Strickland Party PDN PCP Last election New 3.02%, 0 seats Seats won 4 1 Seat change New 1 Popular vote 13,968 7,290 Percentage 9.27% 4.84%

Elected Prime Minister George Borg Olivier Nationalist

General elections were held in Malta between 17 and 19 February 1962. ^[1] The Nationalist Party emerged as the largest party, winning 25 of the 50 seats.

The Nationalist Party and four other pro-Catholic Church, self-declared anti-communist parties, formed an electoral pact against the Labour Party. This election is considered to be also the one to give the parties a mandate in favour of (or against) future Independence from the United Kingdom.

Electoral system

The elections were held using the single transferable vote system, ^[2] whilst the number of seats was increased from 40 to 50. ^[3] Due to the nature of the electoral system not providing for electoral alliances, party candidates appeared individually on ballot papers.

Participating parties

Party				Founded	Leader	Ideology/Ideologies	Political position	Pre-election composition	Stance on Maltese Independence
	"Umbrella Coalition" [a]
			Nationalist Party	1926 [b]	Giorgio Borg Olivier	Christian Democracy	Centre-right to Right-wing	17 / 40	Y
			Christian Workers' Party	1961	Toni Pellegrini	Anti-communism Political Catholicism		—	Y Gradual [4]
			Democratic Christian Party		George Ransley	Anti-independence [5]			N [5]
			Democratic Nationalist Party	1959	Herbert Ganado	Christian Democracy Political Catholicism			N [6]
			Progressive Constitutional Party	1953	Mabel Strickland	Monarchism [7] Dominion Status Anti-Independence			N [7]
			Labour Party	1921	Dominic 'Dom' Mintoff	Democratic Socialism Secularism Factions: Marxism	Centre-left to Left-wing with far-left factions [8]	23 / 40	Y

Results

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Umbrella Coalition		Nationalist Party	63,262	42.00	25	+8
			Christian Workers' Party	14,285	9.49	4	New
			Democratic Nationalist Party	13,968	9.27	4	New
			Progressive Constitutional Party	7,290	4.84	1	+1
			Democratic Christian Party	699	0.46	0	New
		Total		99,504	66.07	34	+17
	Malta Labour Party			50,974	33.85	16	–7
	Independents			128	0.08	0	–
Total				150,606	100.00	50	+10
Valid votes				150,606	99.39
Invalid/blank votes				927	0.61
Total votes				151,533	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				166,936	90.77
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Notes

1. An electoral pact signed by The Nationalist Party and four other self-declared anti-communist parties, against the Labour Party — whose executive committee was under an ecclesiastical interdict — at the insistence and encouragement of the Catholic Church, aided popularly by the Diocesan Junta of Catholic Organisations, a coalition in itself of various Catholic organisations namely the Maltese sections of Catholic Action and Young Christian Workers, with the Society for Christian Doctrine - MUSEUM (the latter at the time also called Society of the Sons and Daughters of the Pope). Due to the nature of the Maltese electoral system which does not provide for electoral coalitions, party candidates appeared individually on ballot papers.
2. Has direct descendance from the Anti-Riformista, Partito Nazionale, and Partito Democratico Nazionalista, founded in 1883.

References

1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1302 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Nohlen & Stöver, p1298
3. Nohlen & Stöver, p1310
4. Vincent E McHale (1983) Political parties of Europe, Greenwood Press, p. 630 ISBN   0-313-23804-9
5. "Dominion, integration, resolutions, a five-party parliament: The rocky road to independence - The Malta Independent". www.independent.com.mt. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
6. McHale, p632
7. McHale, p636
8. Malta Labour Party, Malta Labour Party Electoral Program 1971. Malta for the Maltese: in Peace and Progress,https://www.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/180487/MLPElectionManifesto1971.pdf