Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545122
5 gozotoday | FRIDAY • 29 MAY 2026 NEWS Paradoxically simple and complicated work? Check out Kurt Sansone's Q&A ity. What is an absolute majority? An absolute majority is when a political party obtains over 50% of first-count votes… even if it is just one vote more than the half- way 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 elec- tion 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 propor- tionality 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 majority, it will be as- sured victory through the 2007 mechanism. But if none of the three parties obtains an abso- lute majority it is the number of seats obtained after the vote counting process is concluded 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 major parties, what happens? For all intents and purpos- es, the independent MP will be considered like any third-party MP and the same principles ap- ply. Who wins in this case? Well, the party with most seats will form a government if it has a parliamentary majority. But if the numbers do not add up, the parties will have to explore forming a coalition. This hap- pened in the 1950, 1951 and 1953 elections. And what is this fuss about women candidates? It's actually not a fuss but a reality that female representa- tion in the Maltese parliament has not improved in decades. 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. This mechanism was applied for the first time in the 2022 election. How will this work? The gender mechanism kicks in after the election process concludes and all MPs are known—even those elected in casual elections. The Electoral Commission determines if any gender representation falls be- low 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 women candidates in a bid to reach the 40% threshold. How- ever, the extra seats are capped at 12—six for either side. Before we continue; what is a casual election? Malta's electoral law allows candidates to contest two elec- toral districts. If a candidate who contests two districts is elected from both, they will have to give up one district. A casual election takes place on the va- cated district between unelected candidates on that district. Back to the election of women. How are the 'extra' female seats awarded? The unelected women can- didates left standing at the last count will be automatically de- clared elect. This is similar to the manner by which the 2007 proportional representation mechanism works. And if the 40% threshold is still not reached? The Electoral Commission will draw up a rank order for each party of women candidates that would have been eliminated. The ranking will be based on the amount of votes each candidate would have inherited before be- ing eliminated, calculated as a percentage of the district quota. The rest of the extra seats are filled by working down the list. But what if there are no more women candidates to fill the extra seats? If no more women candidates are available to fill the extra seats, the political parties can opt for co-option to make up the difference. What is a co-option? A co-option happens when a vacated parliamentary seat can- not be filled by a casual election or any other mechanism dictat- ed at law. The party that has to fill the seat proposes the name of anyone it wants and parliament votes to co-opt that person into the House. Over the years, sever- al MPs were elected in this way, including Eddie Fenech Adami in 1966 and in the 2017-2022 legislature, then Opposition leaders Adrian Delia and Ber- nard Grech, and ministers Miri- am Dalli and Clyde Caruana. What happens if after the 12 extra seats are awarded women MPs still do not make up at least 40% of parliamentary representation? No further adjustments will be done. The law caps the extra seats at 12 to avoid having the number of parliamentary seats explode unreasonably. One final question. What about gender-neutral candidates? The law also makes provisions for these people. Any candidate, who officially adopts the X gen- der marker will be considered as being part of the under-repre- sented sex and so eligible for the extra seats. 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 under- way? Too few. The inner workings of Malta's single transferable vote (STV) system can admittedly be confus- ing. It was a system introduced in 1921 by the British colonial powers when granting the Mal- tese self-government status for the first time. A similar system is used in Ireland. Voters are expected to give nu- meric preferences to candidates, starting from the all-important number 1 and continuing in as- cending order—2, 3, 4 and so on. This is why the vote is considered transferable, because it is inher- ited from one candidate to the next. The system is slightly more complicated than that but a new website seeks to shed more light on how your vote moves from candidate to candidate, depend- ing on how many numbers you put down on the ballot sheet. The website, vot. mt, hosts a simu- lation of Malta's four previous elections. Us- ers 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 contributed in electing MPs. Depending 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 beau- ty of the system that allows vot- ers to transfer their preference between 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 us- ers on the country's governance structure by explaining what a parliamentary democracy is. The website also explains other constitutional mechanisms in- troduced over the years to tweak the STV system, such as the gen- der corrective mechanism—used for the first time in 2022. It also delves into the mechanisms in place to address scenarios where a party 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 understand it, the more power you have as a vot- er. In Malta, that power starts with how you fill in the ballot," the website's mission statement reads. MATTHEW FARRUGIA mfarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt