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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 JUNE 2024 We need to speak on electoral reform Editorial THE petition for constitutional reform of the elec- toral system initiated by Il-Kollettiv and fronted by former Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer argues that the 'greatest principle of a representative democracy is that every vote counts'. An equally sacrosanct princi- ple, the petition adds, is that 'the will of the electorate be accurately reflected in the election result'. The petition asks parliament to open up a broad con- sultation process, discuss the introduction of a national threshold that would lead to a fairer system. These are aims that this leader has consistently sup- ported. Unfortunately, electoral reform talks to make the system more representative, proportional and fair over the years have always been torpedoed by the two main political parties on the false premise that plural- ism risks creating instability and making the country ungovernable. To understand the need for electoral reform, we have to understand the current reality in Malta's parliament to realise how absurd the situation is. Parliament is today composed of 79 MPs. A simple proportion shows that each of these MPs represents around 3,700 voters, based on the number of valid votes cast in the last general election. At least 12 of these MPs were elected through a post-election mechanism intended to boost the num- ber of female MPs. This special mechanism only kicks in if two parties are represented in parliament. It is therefore very ironic that ADPD, whose candi- dates collectively polled 4,747 votes across Malta and Gozo in 2022 is not represented in parliament. Based on the simple proportion presented above, the Green Party should have been assured of at least one seat. The only reason why ADPD is not represented in par- liament is because the threshold to get elected is dis- trict based and thus a candidate must poll around 3,700 votes on a single district instead. The irony with this system is that a single independent candidate who can garner 3,700 votes on just one dis- trict could end up in parliament, whereas a political par- ty that manages to obtain 20,000 votes or more across the whole country (around 7% based on valid votes cast in the 2022 general election) could miss the parliamen- tary bus completely. This is unfair because it can disenfranchise a whole swath of voters, making parliament unrepresentative of society. One may argue that third parties have not been suc- cessful because people have simply chosen not to vote for them. While partially true, this is a very simplistic argument often made by those who want a two-party system to perpetuate forever. The truth is that the two major political parties have over the years made several changes to the electoral system to suit their agenda. In its unadulterated form, the district-based single transferable vote system is a candidate-focussed system that ignores the collective strength of a political party in terms of votes – in short it is the seats a party wins that count for victory and not the votes it obtains. This is what effectively happened in 1981 and which prompted a five-year-long political crisis. In the aftermath of the 1981 debacle, the Labour and Nationalist parties amended the Constitution several times over to give more weight to the votes obtained by the parties when determining victory in a general election. They basically introduced the principle that the votes obtained by a political party nationwide should not be ignored. But this only applied in situations where the district-based system only returned MPs from two par- ties. Indeed, the constitutional amendment of 1987 en- sured that the political party that obtained an absolute majority of votes in the country would be assigned extra seats to ensure a parliamentary majority of at least one if it ended up with fewer seats after the district-by-district process is over. In 1996, another constitutional amendment extend- ed the same principle adopted 11 years earlier to a sit- uation where the winning party only obtains a relative majority. A subsequent amendment ensured strict proportion- ality between parliamentary seats and votes obtained nationwide but again this was limited to a situation where the district-based system returns MPs from only two political parties. There should be no qualms to amend the electoral system further to ensure proportional representation based on nationwide support is introduced irrespective of what the district-based system returns. Indeed, such a system was proposed by Professor An- ton Buhagiar in the 1990s when electoral reform was being discussed. The system would still see MPs elected on a district basis but the final composition of parlia- ment would proportionally reflect the number of votes obtained nationwide. This means that after the dis- trict-wide process is finalised, the parties that contested the election would be awarded additional seats to reflect the national vote. In this way, ADPD would have been assured at least one seat in the last general election. To mitigate against potential instability caused by excessive fragmentation, a national threshold can be introduced so that only political parties that surpass it will be represented in parliament. Based on the current parliamentary setup, each MP in parliament represents 3,700 voters, or 1.3% of all valid votes cast. This thresh- old may be too low but a threshold ranging between 3% and 5% would ensure that a party represented in parlia- ment has some critical mass. The question we should be asking ourselves in the af- termath of the European and local council elections is, should our electoral system ensure that an increasingly variegated electorate is represented in parliament? In our view, the answer is yes and this is why we sup- port the parliamentary petition presented by Il-Kollet- tiv. It is high time that an honest discussion with the intent to enact meaningful change should kick off. And if some of the documents from past attempts are re- trieved and dusted, the blue prints already exist for a system that is fair and proportional. Quote of the Week "We must respect the needs of the parish and of the public in general. It is unacceptable that weddings, funerals, the festa and other church activities are becoming difficult to organise because of this situation." Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, promising action to limit the takeover of Victoria's St George's Square by commercial establishments. He was replying to a parliamentary question by MP Albert Buttigieg. MaltaToday 10 years ago 22 June 2014 Parties owe €2.5 million in energy and water bills THE Nationalist and Labour parties have outstanding bills of a combined €2.5 million, which they have owed to Enemalta and the Water Services Corporations for years, Malta- Today has been shown. This newspaper can now state that the PN has bills running up to €1.9 million, while Labour owes ARMS – the Automated Revenue Manage- ment Service – some €600,000 for electricity and water. The information confirms years of spec- ulation that both parties have enjoyed secret amnesties on their electricity and water bills. ARMS have beefed up their credit control department as they put more pressure on many of their clients to pay up for their accumulated elec- tricity and water bills. But as things stand, neither La- bour nor the heavily-indebted Nationalist Party are in any state of financial health to settle the pending amounts. Today ARMS is headed by chief execu- tive Carmen Ciantar, a La- bour activist who was publicly vis- ible during electoral rallies as part of the selected audience seat- ed behind Joseph Muscat. Even Enemalta's new chief executive, Frederick Azzop- ardi, was elected for Labour on the Mdi- na local council; while former chairman Charles Mangion was lat- er elected to the House on a casual election. While political parties retain an influ- ential hold on publicly-owned corpora- tions, various clients who defaulted on their dues have been presented with ju- dicial letters to pay up within a stipulated time, or have their services disconnected. ...