General elections were held in Malta between 17 and 19 February 1962.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1302 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,Nohlen & Stöver, p1298 whilst the number of seats was increased from 40 to 50.Nohlen & Stöver, p1310 Due to the nature of the electoral system not providing for electoral alliances, party candidates appeared individually on ballot papers.
Participating parties +PartyFoundedLeaderIdeology/IdeologiesPolitical positionPre-election compositionStance on Maltese Independence"Umbrella Coalition"Nationalist Party1926Giorgio Borg OlivierChristian DemocracyCentre-right to Right-wingChristian Workers' Party1961Toni PellegriniAnti-communism Political Catholicism rowspan="4" GradualVincent E McHale (1983) Political parties of Europe, Greenwood Press, p. 630 Democratic Christian PartyGeorge RansleyAnti-independenceDemocratic Nationalist Party1959Herbert GanadoChristian DemocracyPolitical CatholicismMcHale, p632Progressive Constitutional Party1953Mabel StricklandMonarchismMcHale, p636Dominion StatusAnti-IndependenceMcHale, p636Labour Party1921Dominic 'Dom' MintoffDemocratic Socialism Secularism
Factions:MarxismCentre-left to Left-wing with far-left factionsMalta 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
Results
Notes
References