If the judge – a former PN candidate in the 1992 general election – hearing the case of the two extra seats being requested by the Nationalist Party, due to an error in the transfer of votes during the counting of votes, decides to give the PN an extra two parliamentary seats, this would in my opinion neither reflect the voters’ will nor the electoral law, which stipulates that the number of seats must reflect the number of first-count votes won by the parties. I will explain.

In the 2013 general election, the PL polled 167,533 first-count votes, while the PN polled 132,426 votes. The average quota for all the 13 electoral districts works out at 3918, arrived at by adding the quotas of each district and then dividing the total of 50,934 by 13, which gives us the average quota of 3918 votes. Dividing the total of PL votes, 167,533 by 3918 gives the PL 42.759 seats. Dividing the total of PN votes, 132,426 by 3918 gives the PN 33.799 seats. Subtracting 33.799 from 42.759 results in a majority for the PL of 8.960 seats, or nine seats, exactly as the Electoral Commission had done!

Had there not been an error and the PN had won the two seats in question, the result would have still given the PL a majority of nine, since the PL had a 13-seat majority at the end of the vote-counting.

But the majority was lowered to nine seats by giving the PN an extra four seats in order to abide by the electoral law.

  

Eddy Privitera

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