Opinion polls point to a win for Prime Minister Robert Abela, 48, who is campaigning on Labour’s economic record and a promise to shield import-heavy Malta from geopolitical crises.
His main rival is Nationalist Party (PN) candidate Alex Borg, a 30-year-old lawyer and former “Mr World Malta” beauty pageant winner, who would be the country’s youngest leader.
At festive final rallies Thursday, Abela told flare-waving supporters that he would be “a captain as strong as steel”, while Borg slammed a country “in chaos”, from a beleaguered health service to blackouts in sweltering summers.
Located off the coast of Sicily, Malta is the smallest and most densely populated country in the EU, with around 550,000 people living in 316 square kilometres.
The island has a thriving economy based largely on tourism, online gaming and financial services, and many voters say its economic performance trumps all other concerns.
“We were poor and under Labour we are rich!” said 72-year-old Conny Pace, proudly wearing a sequined hat in Labour’s red.
Construction boom
Malta has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU.
The population has grown nearly 30% over a decade, driven largely by foreigners, which in turn has fuelled a construction boom, filling the skyline with cranes, creating traffic bottlenecks, and putting a strain on key services.
Heritage groups have denounced environmental degradation and risks to Unesco world heritage sites in the former British colony.
But in a country that imports nearly all its energy, bills are the hottest campaign topic.
The government says it has earmarked an extra €250 million for subsidies as a cushion against fallout from the Middle East conflict, on top of the 150 million euros already budgeted for 2026.
The country, which has few natural resources, is on the front line of climate change and at risk of desertification and drought, but neither main party has made the issue its priority.
There is a green party, the ADPD, but no third party has held even a seat in Malta’s parliament since before independence in 1964.
The latest poll by the Malta Independent put Labour comfortably ahead at 49% of the vote, to the PN’s 38%.
Shopkeeper Melanie Cremona, 49, said Borg is “young, has a lot of energy, a fresh mind”.
But taxi driver Mariella Jeremic, who has four children, told AFP most people will vote Labour, “not with our hearts, but for the economy, for stability”.
Corruption
According to a 2025 Council of Europe report, Malta remains significantly behind in the fight against corruption, but many locals were unwilling to comment publicly on the issue.
Abela has led Malta since January 2020, when his predecessor Joseph Muscat quit following a political crisis over the assassination in 2017 of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Political analyst Andrew Azzopardi from the University of Malta said Abela had likely called a snap vote to hold the election before the upcoming trial of businessman Yorgen Fenech, charged with orchestrating the murder.
Caruana Galizia exposed corruption at the highest level in the country, shining a spotlight on murky links between Malta’s business and political elite.
A 2021 public inquiry found the state “should bear responsibility” for her death, saying it had created a “climate of impunity”.
Muscat and other top officials were charged last year in a separate hospital privatisation scandal, though they reject the allegations and Abela has also raised doubts over the investigation.
Azzopardi said many locals would think of their wallets and vote Labour despite the scandals, for “there’s corruption, but I get another 50 euros a week in my pension”.
Preliminary results are expected on Sunday afternoon.