Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545062
MATTHEW FARRUGIA mfarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt 23 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 MAY 2026 NEWS Tabib u kandidat f'isem il-Partit Laburista fuq is-6 u s-7 distre . SEGRETARJU PARLAMENTARI GĦALL- ANZJANITA' ATTIVA /mpagiusgalea Struggling to understand how our voting system works? There's a website for that MANY voters may have already made up their mind who to vote for. Yet, thousands remain un- sure and possibly, part of the equation involves how to utilise the vote to choose the best can- didates. But how many actually know how the Maltese voting system works and how the ballot on which they will jot down their preferences will look like when the counting process gets un- derway? Too few. The inner workings of Malta's single transferable vote (STV) system can admittedly be con- fusing. It was a system intro- duced in 1921 by the British colonial powers when granting the Maltese self-government status for the first time. A simi- lar system is used in Ireland. Voters are expected to give numeric preferences to candi- dates, starting from the all-im- portant number 1 and contin- uing in ascending order—2, 3, 4 and so on. This is why the vote is considered transfera- ble, because it is inherited from one candidate to the next. The system is slightly more compli- cated than that but a new web- site seeks to shed more light on how your vote moves from can- didate to candidate, depending on how many numbers you put down on the ballot sheet. The website, vot.mt, hosts a simulation of Malta's four previous elections. Users are given a chance to choose the district on which they would like to vote and actually cast a ballot in those elections. The electoral results are then used to help the user see how their vote gets inherited along the way. Users can choose to run the simulation in any district they prefer. Apart from a technical explanation of the STV system, users can also witness first- hand how different voters con- tributed in electing MPs. De- pending on which district and which election one runs the simulation, users can see that sometimes, MPs get elected by just a handful of votes, and that voting for each candidate on the ballot ensures voters strengthen the power of their vote. It also shows the beauty of the system that allows voters to transfer their preference be- tween candidates of different parties. The website is the brainchild of David Grech, Alex Portelli, and Andrea Delicata. They say the sole purpose of the exercise is to educate the electorate on Malta's voting system. Other than the STV system, vot.mt also seeks to educate users on the country's govern- ance structure by explaining what a parliamentary democ- racy is. The website also explains other constitutional mech- anisms introduced over the years to tweak the STV system, such as the gender corrective mechanism—used for the first time in 2022. It also delves in- to the mechanisms in place to address scenarios where a par- ty gets the most votes but still ends up without a majority of parliamentary seats. "Understanding the system isn't just for politicians. It is your right and responsibility because the more you under- stand it, the more power you have as a voter. In Malta, that power starts with how you fill in the ballot," the website's mission statement reads.