Positive discrimination for Gozo - and fairness for all parties

The report on the revision of the electoral boundaries in Malta has given rise to an enormous amount of controversy. The Prime Minister, Dr Lawrence Gonzi, and PN secretary general Joe Saliba have expressed their "shock" at such a report. On the other hand, Opposition Leader Alfred Sant and MLP deputy leader Michael Falzon have expressed their shock... at the Prime Minister's shock!

The end result of the whole diatribe is that, at the beginning of last week, the Prime Minister gave notice of a motion for Parliament to refer the report on changes to the electoral boundaries back to the Electoral Commission, which Parliament approved. This takes us back to square one, with the Electoral Commission having another two months to take a definitive decision, which will be final.

The world has moved on. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989; the European Union has expanded from 12 countries in 1995 to 25 in 2004; trade barriers are falling the world over; peaceful revolutions have happened in Georgia, Ukraine and other countries. Yet in Malta the clock has been stopped... we are still stuck at the electoral problems of 1981!

The root of the problem is very easy to identify and yet the same deep-rooted partisan mentalities continue to prevail. The basic defect of our electoral system lies in the possibility of gerrymandering. Every five years or so the Maltese and Gozitan public is subjected to the sad spectacle of a supposed revision of electoral boundaries.

Of course, we all know the outcome of this exercise: one of the two big parties is going to complain that the districts have been fixed to accommodate the opposing party. Ergo, we are going to have the four representatives nominated by one party on the Electoral Commission voting in favour of the changes... while inevitably the other four nominated by the other party are going to oppose vehemently and produce a minority report.

Of course, the solution to this eternal problem is so evident: let us eliminate the district quotas and have a national quota. At this point, any changes to the boundaries of the electoral districts would be immaterial. Yet, what is so evident to any layman or woman remains mysteriously not understood by the two main parties when discussing electoral reform. The Malta Labour Party is rightly claiming that the number of votes cast should be strictly reflected in the number of seats in Parliament. There should be strict proportionality between votes and seats.

Of course, this is a sacred principle of democracy and the MLP is right to insist on this. However, the MLP should refrain from just thinking of its own narrow interests and should ensure that the principle it is propounding is valid for one and all... including Alternattiva Demokratika. Therefore, if AD gets 3% or 4% in a national election, or 5% or 6% of the votes in a local election (as we actually do!), the principle of strict proportionality between votes and seats should be valid for AD too... and not only for the MLP!

The PN, on the other hand, should also be consistent in its principles! Eleven years ago, the Gonzi Commission had proposed a national quota, with a 5% threshold for representation in Parliament. The MLP had opposed the 5% threshold at that time. Now, in 2005, it is clear from Dr Sant's words that the MLP is accepting the 5% threshold. But, going by reports in Malta Today, the PN is no longer agreeing with what it had proposed.

It has decided to move the goalposts once again! We are even having absurd suggestions by people like Minister Louis Deguara who basically ends up justifying the British "first past the post system" whereby, for example, the Liberals get 22% of the votes.... and less than 10% of the seats!

The PN must wake up from its deep slumber and realise that we have joined Europe! This is the Europe where, in any proportional system, from Cyprus (1.9%) to Denmark or Greece (3%), to Italy, Sweden or Holland (4%), to Germany or Poland (5%), a national quota prevails and the national threshold never surpasses 5%! Where there is no national quota, but regional districts, like Luxembourg or Finland, the districts range from three- to five-seat districts (quota 20%) to 22- to 25-seat districts (quota 4%)!

Let us move towards the democratic structures of the democratic EU that we have joined. To every rational person in Malta, it is obvious that we need a national quota. It is obvious that, even though I find this too high, the threshold can never go beyond 5%. The German model has been bandied about many times.

I am ready to go for the German model... but as it is implemented in full! How does the German model work? Well, there is a 5% national threshold for a party, but there remains also the district quota which allows individual candidates to be elected.

The Electoral Commission report comes up with many problems... in particular the Gozo district. Well, what is my proposal? Easy, the German one: a double threshold. On the one hand, a 5% national threshold for political parties. And then the district threshold. Since Gozo is a disadvantaged area, I would give the island-region positive political discrimination to make up for its double isolation: Gozo on its own would elect seven seats.

The rest of Malta would then be divided into four electoral districts of 15 seats each. Any political party that obtains over 5% of the votes in all Malta and Gozo would get a proportionate amount of seats in Parliament. Over and above that, any individual candidate who gets 12.5% of the votes in Gozo (100 division by eight) or 6.25% in one of the four districts in Malta (100 division by 16) would also be elected to Parliament.

This system works in Germany because, at the end of it all, German political parties and the German electoral commission have the prime interests of their country at heart. Until now, in Malta, no electoral system has ever really worked properly, at least since 1981, since the two main parties and the four and four on the electoral commission have just kept on pushing the narrow interests of their own respective party political masters!

It is however heartening to read now that on principle Dr Gonzi and Dr Sant seem to be agreeing on the idea of having Malta and Gozo as one electoral area, with regard to the counting of votes and who governs the country, thus eliminating once and for all the possibility of gerrymandering.

It is heartening to see that they agreed in Parliament that they must resume discussions, including with Alternattiva Demokratika, on the basis of the old Gonzi Commission, which had proposed a national quota and a threshold of 5%.

Maybe, we are finally about to reach some political maturity, that implies basic common sense. About time, too; we are already in the fifth year of the third millennium!

arnold.cassola@alternattiva.org.mt