FRANCESCA VELLA

The fact that one of the Constitutional amendments to the electoral system that Parliament agreed to last September had to be used this time round to give the Nationalist Party a majority in Parliament, shows that “the system is still not working the way we want it to”, in the words of economist and former electoral commissioner Edward Scicluna.

The electoral process provides for a Parliamentary seat majority for the party winning the majority of total votes cast.

The amendments put a lot of weight on first preference votes and in last Saturday’s general election, the Nationalist Party was elected to government by means of a relative majority of just 1,580 first preference votes.

As the MLP won 34 Parliamentary seats and the PN 31 at Saturday’s polls, the PN needed to be given an additional four seats so as to obtain a Parliamentary majority – creating a 69-seat parliament for the next legislature, split 35-34 in the PN’s favour.

Prof. Scicluna told The Malta Independent: “It is clear that this amendment is a temporary stop-gap, showing that the system by itself does not work the way we want it to”.

“This over-emphasis on first preference votes within a system of proportional representation is a strange concoction. The only thing for it to date is that very few people are against it,” he said.

Meanwhile, speaking during the PN victory mass meeting on the Granaries in Floriana on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said the system needs to be strengthened.

On Monday, on the other hand, Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Harry Vassallo said the party wants to continue discussing ways to improve the electoral system.

He argued that the amendments favoured the two big parties, to the detriment of smaller parties like AD.

Reacting to this, Prof. Scicluna said he believed Parliament should faithfully reflect the expression of the electorate.

“Votes should not be wasted, so yes, this anomaly should be dealt with in a clean and final manner. A proper electoral system in a modern EU member state should not rely on a patched-up system,” he said.

Before the 1987 Constitutional amendment to the electoral system, there was the 1981 saga, when the PN had not made it to government, because the MLP, with a minority of the votes, had achieved a majority of parliamentary seats.

The same thing happened in 1987, but the PN had been elected to government then, following a pre-election agreement through a Constitutional amendment.

Interestingly, in 1996, when the MLP was elected to government, it had not made it on the number of parliamentary seats achieved, but also needed to be given additional ones for a one-seat majority that ultimately led to the collapse of the government.

As for the smaller parties, the two big parties see them as a threat to the parliamentary “stability” they enjoy.

AD has long been arguing against the second major change to the Constitution, which allows for strict proportionality in the allocation of seats on the basis of first count votes.

In an article written last September, AD candidate Arnold Cassola said: “Of course, nobody in their right senses could disagree with this: it is the essence of democracy that parliamentary seats should reflect proportionately the number of votes obtained by each party.

“But here lies the arrogance of the Sant-Gonzi duo: they are applying strict proportionality between parliamentary seats and votes obtained only to their two parties.”

Prof. Cassola said that in a normal democracy, if, for example, out of a total of 250,000 votes cast, the PN gets 110,000 votes it should get 28 seats; if MLP obtains 100,000 votes, then it should get 26 seats and if Alternattiva Demokratika gets 40,000 votes then it should get 11 seats.

Instead, however, said Prof. Cassola, the two “democratic” parties have basically entrenched in our Constitution the principle that if, for example, out of a total of 250,000 votes cast, the PN obtains 110,000 votes, it gets 34 seats; if the MLP gets 100,000 votes, it should have 31 seats, and if AD obtains 40,000 votes nationally, it gets no seats at all.