Spring voting in Malta

It feels like the first weekend of Spring and Saturday was a beautiful day for queuing to vote.  This is also the first time I have been able to vote in Malta and I can only vote for local government in Valletta, not for the National government.  A policeman knocked on my door some weeks ago and presented me with my voting card telling me where to go and what room I had to find.

Armed with my card, I set off to the voting station with directions from my neighbour who also told me to vote for the young man who was promising playing facilities for children.  I found the school easily at the end of Merchant street - it looked like the whole of Valletta was heading in that direction.  Voter turn-out was well over 90% in all districts.

I joined the end of a long queue and since everyone was chatting in Maltese I got out my newspaper and settled down to wait.  The queue was moving very slowly but the atmosphere was good-natured even though everyone was complaining.  A continuous stream of ambulances and cars brought people in wheelchairs and the police were acting as ramp orderlies as well as crowd management.  As I inched closer to the entrance to the school, a tall policeman told us all to switch off our mobiles.  He spoke in Maltese but I worked it out and dutifully switched off.  He also prevented people who had already voted from talking to the people who were waiting.  People smoked and I buried  my nose in the newspaper to try and avoid setting off my lingering bronchitis.

A policeman was talking at me in Maltese and reaching across the queue towards my newspaper.  i thought he wanted to read something in the paper so I offered it to him.  Everyone laughed.

"It's the law," said the man in front of me in the queue.

"Really?" I managed

"There might be political content," said the policeman, "No political content within 50 metres."

I started folding the paper.

"Put it in your bag," said the policeman.

I felt a bit sheepish but did as I was told.

"I should've brought my book to read," I muttered and got sympathetic smiles from the people around me.  The woman in front lit up her third cigarette.  Nobody talked about politics.  The sun was very hot.  A man in front leant on the barrier and lit a cigar.  The policeman told us all to stay on the pavement.  A tourist couple walking down the road asked the policeman what was happening.  He replied in a very deep, slow voice,

"It is a g-e-n-e-r-a-l e-l-e-c-t-i-o-n"

A small girl broke ranks and went to sit on a block of stone across the street.  She took on the role of crowd entertainment.  She carefully got out her dummy from her pocket and settled down with her hands on her knees.  She flirted outrageously with the tall policeman.  He walked slowly down the queue telling us all to stay on the pavement.  When he returned to the other side of the street, he offered the little girl a poppa.  She was unsure at first but then a huge grin spread across her face behind her dummy.

The policeman asked her something in Maltese that I interpreted as "Do you know how to open it?"

"Iva," said the small girl and carefully put her dummy back in her pocket.  Her nana joined her but the policeman insisted that she should return to the queue.  By this time, I had got to the front and was inside.

The system works well.  I found the correct room and could tell by the familiar faces in the much shorter queue that the rooms were assigned by district.  The room had four polling booths and they let people in as the booths became empty.  I had to give them my card and they matched it up with a photocopy on a sheet, crossed it off, kept the card and gave me a voting sheet.  Then I had to fold it and put it in a box. 

And the result was out soon after midday today.  I was in the Maritime Museum in Birgu when I started to hear screaming and banging as though bombs were dropping.  The man on the desk told me that Labour had won.  Out on the streets, a huge crowd was gathering in the square and carcades were winding their way around the back streets.  On the ferry coming back to Valletta several labour supporters were waving flags and chanting the slogan "Malta for All".  In the lift which was free and through Upper Barrakka gardens people shouted "for all" with a proprietorial air.  It's a good slogan but Malta for all requires each of us to take responsibility for making sure that everyone's rights are respected. I'm disappointed that the Greens didn't win a single seat so that they could have a platform from which to argue against the groups who seek to turn public space into private playgrounds.