In the past weeks the Chamber of Commerce issued an interesting set of electoral reform proposals, which would introduce significant changes to the face of the Maltese political scene.

The proposals deal with several matters within Malta's electoral system which have long been debated, such as whether Parliament should shift to being on a full-time basis, the number of MPs that Malta has, the number of electoral districts, co-options, and small party representation.

The Chamber proposes first and foremost that Malta's Parliament is downsized from its present number - which in theory is 65 MPs (five from each of Malta's 13 districts) but which in reality has now been bloated to 79 MPs, due to constitutional proportionality and gender representation mechanisms.

It's a number which means that Malta has far and away that highest number of MPs per capita in Europe.  The Chamber wants that number, however, to be slashed to 45 MPs.  Not only that, however, the Chamber wants those 45 MPs to be in essence more effective than the present day, by making them full-timers.

Its electoral reform proposes a base salary on par with a government Director General for an MP but also proposes that MPs be given a full-time researcher to work with them.  This is a very important proposal if we want a Parliament which is not just more effective, but more prepared when it comes to legislating.

Malta's Parliament at the moment is too large: it has led to bloated Cabinets and Shadow Cabinets, while those on the backbench have had to be placated with sometimes quite lucrative government roles elsewhere.

The gender mechanism saw 12 MPs allocated a seat in Parliament, and while the representation for women has indeed increased - has the talent in Parliament increased?  Out of the six MPs elected via the mechanism on the government benches, only one of them is in Cabinet as a Parliamentary Secretary, for instance.

The Chamber's proposal strikes the right balance: reduce the number of MPs, but allocate more resources to those who are elected so that the output quality can increase significantly.

Another interesting proposal concerns Malta's electoral districts. The Chamber suggests that the number of districts is slashed from 13 to 5 - with Gozo having the towns of Mellieha and Mgarr added to it. Each district would elect nine MPs.

This is another proposal with weight to it - it preserves the regionality aspect of the elections, where each region has its own distinct features, yet strikes a balance wherein clientelism in smaller districts can be reduced and we can avoid having localities divided into two separate electoral districts.

The proposal to join two Maltese localities with Gozo as a whole is one which will no doubt be the subject of more discussion, and it will require some thought and reflection.

Of interest is another proposal to introduce a national threshold through which a political party can be elected.  This threshold would be of 5% of the national vote - meaning that if a party were to receive 5% of the 1s of all the votes across the country it would be guaranteed a seat in Parliament, even if no candidate were to exceed the district quota.

It's an important idea particularly within the context of more and more people seemingly steering themselves away from the two mainstream parties.  No doubt neither the PL nor the PN will agree with this: a third party in Parliament could severely weaken their hold on the political system - but in principle democracy should be such that representation is as widespread as possible, and should enough people want another party in Parliament, then they should have a right to be represented in Parliament.

There is another proposal for the appointment of unelected technical ministers which may have to be fleshed out a bit more: it is an interesting idea, but critics will argue that replacing an elected MP with an unelected technocrat goes against the principles of a democratic election.

It certainly has its merits though, particularly as it is designed to replace a co-option system which has been abused of in the past.  We need to only look at the co-option of Randolph Debattista (who has since been shifted off to a diplomatic posting) at the start of this legislature as one such prime example.

All in all however the proposed reforms are certainly worthy of being taken note of.  Will the two major political parties have any interest in reforming an electoral system which, at the end of the day, favours them?  Time will tell.