Questions as to whether or not to reform Malta’s electoral system have long been around, while reforms to Malta’s constitution have already started to be made.

Over recent years, there has been a lot of talk as to how we should change the systems that underpin our democracy here in Malta.

Last week, two such points again reared their head.

The first came in the form of the lack of power the Office of the President has.

A number of organisations had called on the President not to sign the new cannabis law, but rather send it back to Parliament where the issues and recommendations brought up but many organisations and experts could seriously be discussed, given that they were ignored by the government.

“To date, the President does not have the power to ignore a law that was passed democratically by Parliament, whether he agrees with it or not, unless he has such a serious moral objection that he prefers to pack up and go home rather than sign that law”, President Vella said.

The post of President in Malta is mostly just a figurehead, but should this be the case? There have been calls in recent years to change things, to give more powers to the President. In such a case, the President should, of course, be elected directly by the electorate. Care would also need to be taken not to give the post of President so much power that it would overpower the office of the Prime Minister and Parliament.

A balance would need to be found. The President having the ability to send back a law to Parliament is a strong power to grant, but at the same time perhaps it is needed and should be studied. Checks and balances would also need to accompany this. Repubblika had made a number of proposals for constitutional reforms months ago which are worthy of discussion.

The second issue which arose was with the electoral system. In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, independent candidate Arnold Cassola said that the electoral system is unfair for third parties and independent candidates. Asked how he would change it, he proposed a two-part system.

It would keep the current system in place but add a second part, which is a national quota. “So we would leave the first part of the system regarding individuals as is, but we would then also look at all the votes and have a national quota by which other parties getting, I would say needing 3% of the vote, get into Parliament.”

It is not the first time we have heard such a proposal, and it will not be the last. For small parties to get a candidate elected on a district is extremely difficult, but is it also fair that we ignore the percentage of the population who vote for that third party? This is a question which we should also delve into and examine.