Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1330252
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 JANUARY 2021 NEWS PARLIAMENT would have ended up with 79 seats after the 2017 general election if the gen- der corrective mechanism being proposed now was applied. Deborah Schembri and Paula Mifsud Bonnici would have been the first of 12 women candidates to hypothetically be elected to parliament in the quest to boost the number of fe- male MPs. Schembri, who contested on the Labour ticket in the 12th District, was left standing at the last count with 3,417 votes. Mifsud Bonnici contested with the Nationalist Party on the 1st District and was left standing at the last count with 2,749 votes. The gender corrective mech- anism being debated in par- liament is intended to boost the number of MPs of the un- der-represented sex by a maxi- mum of 12. Women only made up 15% of elected MPs in the 2017 elec- tion, falling far below the 40% threshold set by the proposed mechanism. The PL elected four women, while the PN had six female MPs. The ratio of women MPs was double that registered in the 1950 election. This means that six unelect- ed women candidates on ei- ther side of the political divide in 2017 would have had to be selected to become MPs to re- store some parity. At the first stage, all unelected women candidates left standing at the last count would make it to parliament. In 2017, this would have applied to Schembri and Mifsud Bonnici only. This part of the mechanism is similar to the one already in Increasing women MPs: With 95 votes to her name before being eliminated, entrepreneur and Labour candidate Marion Mizzi would have made it to parliament in 2017 if the gender corrective mechanism was applied. Kurt Sansone explains how place that awards extra seats to the parties so that their parlia- mentary representation is pro- portional to their first count vote tally. PN MPs Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Frederick Azzo- pardi were elected in this way because the party was awarded two additional seats. However, Schembri's and Mifsud Bonnici's hypothetical election would still leave either party with five more seats to fill with women candidates. Rank order In this case, the mechanism proposes the creation of a rank order of all women candidates for either side. In this case, the top five women candidates on each party's ranking will be elected. The law as proposed by gov- ernment is ambiguous because it states that the rank order should be based on either the votes obtained by women can- didates at the last count before they were eliminated, or a cal- culation of their last count vote as a percentage of the district quota. The Opposition is suggesting a clearer approach when it pro- poses a ranking based on the quota percentage. If this part of the mechanism was applied in the 2017 elec- tion, the PL would have seen First elected PL: Deborah Schembri – 12th District – 3,417 PN: Paula Mifsud Bonnici – 1st District – 2,749 Next elected PL: Davina Sammut Hili – 1st District – 431 votes – 11% of quota PL: Nikita Zammit Alamango – 9th District – 396 votes – 10% of quota PL: Rachel Tua – 11th District – 209 votes – 5% of quota PL: Rita Sammut – 4th District – 150 votes – 4% of quota PL: Marion Mizzi – 10th District – 95 votes – 2% of quota PN: Graziella Attard Previ – 10th District – 1,883 votes – 48% of quota PN: Graziella Galea – 12th District – 1,257 votes – 32% of quota PN Alessia Psaila Zammit – 6th District – 804 votes – 21% of quota PN: Roselyn Borg Knight – 10th District – 805 votes – 21% of quota PN: Amanda Abela – 3rd District – 777 votes – 20% of quota The law as proposed is ambiguous because it states that the rank order should be based on either votes obtained at the last count before elimination, or a calculation of their last count vote as a percentage of the district quota