They are at it again.

The Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party are once again at loggerheads over the drawing up of the electoral districts. With the general election two years away, matters do not look good.

This has been a dispute from time immemorial. In 1981, the PN obtained an absolute majority of votes but a minority of seats in Parliament because of the way the districts had been drawn up. The MLP retained power, and what ensued was the most difficult period in recent Maltese history.

The Constitution was changed very close to the 1987 election, allowing the party which wins the absolute majority of votes (50% + one) to have a majority of seats in Parliament, and this led the PN to take over from the MLP in May of that year.

But the problems were not over. The MLP won the 1996 election with an absolute majority of votes but won a minority of seats. This gave the MLP a one-seat majority in Parliament, and this ultimately cost it the government 22 months later following an early election.

The dispute over the electoral districts is now back on the political agenda, after problems over Gozo and other matters were exposed to the public. The way electoral districts for the coming election, probably in 2008, are to be drawn up has been the subject of private meetings between the two sides for quite some time. But following the public statements made by representatives of both the PN and the MLP, the issue is once again dominating.

Both sides have come across as accusing each other of putting partisan interests before national interests. Both sides are seen to be defending their own patch of land without giving due importance to what is good for the country. They are wrong.

It is easy to say that a compromise should be reached and can be reached. But who is prepared to make the first move?

The problem, it seems, is not Gozo. Last year, the Electoral Commission had agreed to separate Ghajnsielem from Gozo and include it with the Mellieha district. But the PN is arguing that Gozo should remain a separate region, and the Prime Minister in Parliament last Wednesday presented a notice of a motion to change the Constitution, aiming to allow Gozo to remain one electoral district irrespective of its population.

Although the MLP did not like the way the PN went about doing this because discussions were still ongoing, Labour has no qualms about this particular subject per se. What is worrying Labour is that, according to deputy leader Michael Falzon, the PN wants to take the opportunity to play about with other districts to suit its needs.

For its part, the PN hit back saying that the MLP is treating Gozitans as second-class citizens by imposing certain conditions.

We expect more accusations to fly from one side to the other over the next days as the debate heats up.

It is rather unfortunate that we have come to this once again. Such problems have existed is the past largely because of Malta’s complex electoral system. A few adjustments here and there have helped to rectify matters, but only up to a certain extent.

The parties’ current intransigence is putting Malta’s future in danger. The difficulties that were experienced in the past because of the way the electoral system worked should not be repeated, and should serve as an eye-opener for the parties.

It is therefore imperative that the two sides thrash out their differences on the matter, and come up with a solution, one that seeks the national, not partisan, interest.

The country cannot afford a repeat of 1981 and 1996, and the trouble that happened after these elections.