The Nationalist Party (PN) said its proposals regarding electoral reform are aimed at strengthening the electoral power of the Maltese, because the more people vote, the stronger the country’s democracy becomes.

Now that Malta is part of the European Union, the PN said in a statement, the Maltese and Gozitans have greater opportunities in European countries. The PN is therefore proposing that Maltese citizens who live in Europe should be allowed to vote in Maltese embassies. The present scenario also calls for the removal of the Foreign Interference Act, said the PN.

The party said it had always maintained that Gozo should remain a single electoral region, no matter what. The party is also calling for the voting procedure to be more accessible and is therefore pushing for electronic ID cards to be recognised as a voting document, while also calling for voting to be allowed in hospitals and homes for the elderly.

According to the PN, Alternattiva Demokratika is aiming solely on winning its place in Parliament without contributing towards the running of the country. AD has suggested four different quotas, varying from 1.7 per cent to seven per cent, but its worst idea is that a party that wins five parliamentary seats should not form part of the government.

It is suggesting that the party that does not obtain a simple majority, but wins 47 per cent of the votes, should be given the majority of parliamentary seats to be able to govern on its own, the PN said.

It is ironic, and goes against European trends, that AD is proposing that small parties should remain out of government. For AD, what is important is that it wins a parliamentary seat and not that it takes responsibility for government, the PN added.

AD, like the Malta Labour Party, wants a majority prize. This means that a party that wins less than 50 per cent of the votes should be given the majority of seats, despite the fact that there could be two other parties that could form a government, the PN said.

During the television programme Bondi+, AD chairman Harry Vassallo was unable to reveal the position that the party took during the discussions, said the PN, adding that during those discussions, Stephen Cachia had been AD’s representative.