The World - News from May 10, 1987

Sporadic violence flared as voters cast their ballots on the small Mediterranean island of Malta that gained its independence from Britain in 1964. Police said that at Zejtun, a stronghold of the governing Socialist Party, three supporters of the opposition Nationalist Party were beaten up and their ballots ripped from their hands. The Socialists have governed for 16 years, but opponents of Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici accuse his government of corruption, autocratic policies and steering a course too far from the West. Election results are not expected until Monday.