News Summary

• Voting has begun in Malta's snap parliamentary election, which will determine who governs the Mediterranean island nation for the next five years.
• Polling stations opened on Saturday in a contest widely viewed as a two-horse race between the governing Labour Party and the centrist Nationalist Party.
• Prime Minister Robert Abela, who leads the Labour Party, called the election a year ahead of schedule against the backdrop of the Iran war.
• Abela reportedly fears that rising energy prices and inflation, caused by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, could weaken his party’s prospects of securing a record-breaking fourth consecutive term in office.