Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/844299
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 JULY 2017 13 a look at how many MPs are in parliament because of their sur- name." Casual elections: the better you do, the lower your chances Schiavone also spoke about casual elections being unfair on candidates. "One of the ideas behind an electoral system is that the more votes you obtain, the greater the chance of being elected," he said. "In the case of casual elections, this does not apply, because if you do well and aren't elected you are at a disadvantage in the casual election." In each round of voting under the STV system, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and their votes dis- tributed among the remaining candidates according to the or- der of preference on the elimi- nated candidate's vote. Once all the available seats have been filled, candidates elected on two districts must choose one of their two seats to relinquish, which would then be opened up to a casual election between une- lected candidates who contested the district. In a casual election, the box containing the votes won by the candidate vacating the seat are distributed among those con- testing, according to the second preference on the vote. Schiavone explained that votes donated from an eliminated can- didate to a second candidate get transferred back to the former if they were to contest a casual election for the latter's seat, and are added to their tally of second preference votes from the elimi- nated candidate. This means that, whereas can- didates who were not eliminated start from a zero-vote tally, those who were eliminated, and who therefore have donated some of their votes to an elected candi- date, are given them back. The anomaly, said Schiavone, could be easily addressed by the country deciding not to allow candidates to contest more than one district. He acknowledged that districts might change and a candidate's constituency could be divided, leading them to be inclined to contest two districts. However, he said this could be remedied by keeping district boundaries the same for between 10 and 15 years. "Then, if a locality grows sig- nificantly, as has happened in St Paul's Bay, we could increase the number of candidates elected from that district," he suggested. What a new system could look like He described Malta's system as a hybrid one, which was never in- tended as such. "The first count was not in- tended to determine governance. The number of seats in parlia- ment was meant to determine who governed the country," he explained, adding that the vote's present dual purpose resulted from the result of the 1981 elec- tion. In that election, the National- ist Party had won the popular vote, while the Labour Party won a majority of seats, result- ing in a political crisis which led to the adoption of constitutional amendments. He said that Malta's system should theoretically facilitate representation by smaller par- ties, but the vote's dual purpose meant that "everyone under- stood the need for their first count vote to go to the party they want in government". Schiavone has a passionate in- terest in the electoral system and has tried to come up with his own ideal system. "You would have two ballots – one where you vote for the party you want to govern, and a second sheet on which, irrespective of which party you've voted for, you can rank candidates according to your preference," he said, adding that this would increase a can- didate's pool of potential voters. "In my case, it would increase the 7,700 PN voters in my dis- trict to the entire district be- cause they know that the 'one' they give to me is not going to affect who governs the coun- try." The new system would also preclude the Prime Minister and other members of the gov- ernment's executive branch from retaining a post in the ex- ecutive for more than 10 years as a means of facilitating "new ideas". Finally, said Schiavone, anoth- er mechanism worth consider- ing was that of electing candi- dates on the basis of party lists. "In Sweden, they have a par- ity between men and women because of party lists," he said. "Candidates from a party would be elected on the basis of their position in a list of candidates so if my party elects 29 MPs and I am 30th on the list I would not make it." He explained that the country achieves this parity because the list alternates between men and women, meaning there would always be a roughly equal num- ber elected to parliament. In addition to achieving better fe- male representation, he said it would also favour the participa- tion of technocrats who are not suited to a combative type of politics. "One of the ideas behind an electoral system is that the more votes you obtain, the greater the chance of being elected. In the case of casual elections, this does not apply." MIRIAM DALLI AMENDMENTS to the IVF legislation have yet to be drafted by the Ministry for Health, after which they will be passed on to the Labour parliamen- tary group for discussion, MaltaToday has learnt. Speaking in parliament last week, Health Min- ister Chris Fearne confirmed that the Labour government would be updating the legislation, arguing that the Embryo Protection Act was very restrictive and had ignored scientific tools and methods that were already available at the time. The Embryo Protection Act had introduced oo- cyte vitrification – the freezing of eggs – while banning any form of sperm or egg donation, and surrogacy. In its most recent electoral manifesto, the La- bour Party pledged to widen and extend the ser- vice, including through the strengthening of the law, to reflect advances in technology and to al- low more couples to benefit from IVF. "This is exactly what we will be doing," a spokes- person for the Health Ministry told MaltaToday when contacted. "Over the coming weeks the Health Ministry will be preparing draft amendments to IVF leg- islation which will first be discussed in cabinet as well as in the Labour Party parliamentary group and structures." The ministry did not provide an answer when asked to state the government's position on egg and sperm donation. In the months preceding the election, and dur- ing the electoral campaign, Prime Minister Jo- seph Muscat reiterated that specialists should be given greater leeway in deciding when and how to help a couple who apply for the treatment. Em- bryo freezing is already included in the law, but is only applied in extreme and exceptional cases. In 2015, an intra-ministerial committee was set up to carry out a review of the Embryo Protection Act. In the months that followed, disagreements within the Labour parliamentary group exposed a split on the legislation to introduce embryo freezing. Among the most vociferous were for- mer foreign affairs minister George Vella, for- mer government whip – today opposition MP – Godfrey Farrugia and former junior minister Deborah Schembri. All three are no longer part of the parliamentary group following the June elections. A fourth objector was Deo Debattista, today parliamentary secretary for consumer protec- tion, who had described embryos as "small ba- bies". Questioned by MaltaToday on Friday whether he would support proposals that allow embryo freezing, Debattista – a family doctor by profes- sion – replied: "I am pro-life and thus pro-IVF". On their part, Minister Carmelo Abela and Justyne Caruana – both of whom in the past were said to be uncomfortable about embryo freezing – failed to reply to questions by MaltaTo- day by the time the article went to print. News SALES EXECUTIVES MediaToday is a media company involved in the publication of newspapers, magazines and TV programmes. These include MaltaToday, Illum, Gourmet Today, Xtra and Dwarna. Vacancies have arisen for sales executives. Experience in the sale of advertising space is an asset. Candidates for the job must be assertive, outgoing and in possession of a driving license. Only selected applicants will be summoned for an interview. Closing date: 14/07/2017 Please send your applications to: The Managing Editor MediaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN9016 Or email: info@mediatoday.com.mt Amendments to IVF legislation yet to be drafted I am pro life and thus pro IVF – Deo Debattista