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14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 MARCH 2022 NEWS ELECTION 2022 Who wins the election? It's pretty simple really – the party with the most votes wins the election and gets to form a government. But it may get complicated if more than two parties elect MPs or an independent manages to slip through. What do you mean 'complicated'? Malta's electoral system has produced some quirky results in the past since the party that gets the most votes does not necessarily get the most parliamentary seats. This changed in 2007 when the Con- stitution was amended to ensure that the number of seats a political party oc- cupies in parliament is proportional to the number of votes it gets in the elec- tion. In the 2013 election the Labour Par- ty obtained 39 seats while the Nation- alist Party obtained 26 seats after the vote counting exercise ended. However, the proportion of seats won by the PL overstated the party's electoral strength while the PN's seat tally understated its vote. According to the constitutional mech- anism the PN was awarded four extra seats to bring the parliamentary balance closer to the election result. A similar situation happened in the 2017 election when the PN was awarded two extra seats. And so, where is the complication? The 2007 mechanism only applies if two parties are elected to parliament or, in a scenario where more than two par- ties are represented in parliament, one of them has an absolute majority. What is an absolute majority? An absolute majority is when a politi- cal party obtains over 50% of first-count votes… even if it is just one vote more than the halfway mark. But what happens if two parties are elected to parliament and none obtain an absolute majority of votes? The party with the most votes, even though it enjoys a relative majority, is the winner. This happened in 2008 when the Nationalist Party won the election with a relative majority of 49.3% against the Labour Party's 48.8%. However, since the PN ended up with 31 seats against Labour's 34 seats, the proportionality mechanism kicked in and awarded four extra seats to the PN. This gave the PN a one-seat majority. And if MPs from three political parties are elected? If one of the parties has an absolute ma- jority, it will be assured victory through the 2007 mechanism. But if none of the three parties obtains an absolute ma- jority it is the number of seats obtained after the vote counting process is con- cluded that determines which party has the parliamentary numbers to govern. In this case, no extra seats are awarded. And if an independent candidate is elected alongside MPs from the two ma- jor parties, what happens? For all intents and purposes the inde- pendent candidate will be considered like any third-party candidate and the same principles apply. Who wins in this case? Well, the party with most seats will form a government if it has a parlia- mentary majority. But if the numbers do not add up, the parties will have to explore forming a coalition. This hap- pened in 1951 and 1953. And what is this fuss about women can- didates? It's actually not a fuss but a reality that female representation in the Mal- tese parliament has not improved in 70 years. In 2021, parliament approved a new law that allows up to 12 extra seats to be awarded to the under-represented gender. However, this mechanism will only apply if two political parties are elected to parliament. How will this work? The new gender mechanism kicks in after the election process concludes and all MPs are known – even those elected in casual elections. The Electoral Com- mission determines if any gender rep- resentation falls below 40%. This is very likely to be women. In this case, extra seats are awarded to either side of the House to be filled by unelected wom- en candidates in a bid to reach the 40% threshold. However, the extra seats are capped at 12 – six for either side. Winning an election in Malta: from the simple to the complicated How is an election won? Are extra seats awarded? How will the new mechanism to have more women MPs work? Check out Kurt Sansone's Q&A.