Tight election won by PN

Alessandra Rizzo of the Associated Press reports on the Nationalist Party election victory and the resignation of Alfred Sant:

Malta's governing Nationalist party has won the island's parliamentary election in one of the former British colony's closest votes since gaining independence in 1964. Election officials say Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's long-ruling party won 49.3 per cent of the vote, compared with the opposition Labour party's 48.8 per cent. The margin was only about 1,500 votes in Saturday's election during which 93 per cent of the country's 315,000 eligible voters cast ballots.

The announcement prompted Labour, which had hoped for a return to power for the first time in a decade, to concede defeat and for its leader, Alfred Sant, to resign. The breakdown of parliament seats was not immediately announced, given Malta's complex proportional representation system.

The Nationalists claimed victory late Sunday, sending supporters pouring onto the streets of the tiny Mediterranean island, waving party flags and honking horns. The celebrations lasted through the night, and many shops and businesses remained closed Monday morning. "The result shows that the Labour party has lost with honour, and the Nationalist party has only won with a small majority," Sant said at a news conference during which he announced he was stepping down as the party's leader..

Now, with Malta's EU membership secured and an economy based on tourism and the euro, the election boiled down to whether Maltese wanted change after two decades of almost uninterrupted rule by the same party...