Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1465732
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 APRIL 2022 10 NEWS Quotas: what happens if female MPs resign House? KARL AZZOPARDI MALTA'S electoral commission is yet to decide on what would be the constitutional manner in which MPs elected to the House under the gender-corrective mechanism, are replaced should they step down from their seat in parliament. Unlike MPs elected to the House, Malta's new 12 female MPs have been technically co-opted to the House under the recently-enacted gender correc- tion that adds an equal number of MPs from the under-repre- sented gender (less than 40% of all MPs) to the two parties elect- ed to the House. And unlike MPs elected to the House, who trigger a by-election if they resign their seat, the exit route for these MPs has not yet been strictly established. Apart from being the subject of a con- stitutional challenge by Green Party AD- PD, which argues that the mechanism only applies to Mal- ta's party duopoly, the system has already fallen prey to party manipulation: in the case of Janice Chetcuti, the Nationalist MP did not contest a casual elec- tion, making way for a male can- didate to be elected, in full knowl- edge that she would be co-opted under the quotas system. So what happens if one of these women drops out of parliament? Justice Minister Jonathan At- tard, who previously worked on the legislative amendments to the quotas rules, said that such women candidates would be ultimately replaced by another co-opted person. "When an MP elected through normal candidature resigns, the votes of that MP are redis- tributed among the rest of the unelected candidates in their district to elect the replacement. In the case of the quotas can- didates, they do not have this packet of votes. Therefore, ac- cording to my interpretation of constitutional law, it is a co-op- tion, and not who is necessarily next in line." Attard also said one of the Constitutional clauses states that a co-opted MP should also reflect the sentiment of the MP they would be replacing. "While not mandatory, I interpret the Constitution here as saying that if the female MP is being replaced via co-option, then it should also be a female MP who must be chosen." The former Nationalist MP Hermann Schiavone, a keen electoral observer, however thinks that unless the party's list of women candidates was not exhausted, the co-opted re- placement should be the next fe- male candidate in line according to the mechanism. Former EU Commissioner and constitutional lawyer To- nio Borg agreed with Attard. "If someone is initially elected through a casual election, and they resign, the individual who replaces them is not elected through a casual election, but through a co-option," he said. Chief Electoral Commissioner Joseph Camilleri however said he is yet to seek legal advice on the matter. "Once we have such advice, we will come back with an answer." The six women MPs elected for the Labour Party were Alicia Bugeja Said, Cressida Galea, Ab- igail Camilleri, Amanda Spiteri Grech, Naomi Cachia and Davi- na Sammut Hili. The Opposi- tion side of the House saw Janice Chetcuti, Paula Mifsud Bonnici, Julie Zahra, Bernice Bonello, Claudette Buttigieg and Eve Borg Bonello elected through the mechanism. Labour has made extensive use of the co-option system to push forward new ministers Clyde Caruana and Miriam Dalli in 2020, as well as other personal choices by Prime Minister Rob- ert Abela when MPs elected via casual election, resigned. Even in the 2022 election, La- bour co-opted Randolph De- battista to the House when two MPs vacated their dual con- stituency and no more Labour candidates were left to contest a casual election. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The leadership race for- mally kicks off today when the general council meets to lay out the timeline of the contest. Grech is expected to address the council. The council is made up of more than 1,600 party dele- gates from the party's vari- ous structures and they will be the ones to decide on the next leader if Grech remains the only contestant. If more than two candi- dates contest, a secret vote will first be held in the gen- eral council to whittle down the list. The top two will then face off in an election PN councillors still want Bernard Grech as leader 57% say PN's campaign was 'good' or 'very good', but 40% also gave Labour positive verdict