Constitutional amendment drafted

The constitutional amendment through which changes will be made to the electoral laws has been drafted and is expected to be presented to Parliament after the two major parties approve it.

Through an agreement reached by the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party, Gozo will be considered as a single electoral district, and if only two parties make it to Parliament, there will be strict proportionality of seats in relation to first-count votes won.

Both the deputy leader of the Malta Labour Party, Michael Falzon and Nationalist Party president Victor Scerri feel the agreement is "a major milestone" as the gerrymandering - determining electoral districts in a way to give a party an advantage over another - that has been practised over the past 40 years, will be a thing of the past. Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo, argues, however, the agreement is "a joke".

Six issues on the table of discussion

Dr Falzon said there were basically six issues that started being discussed by the three parties in March 2005: Gozo as a district, the proportionality of seats to first count votes, a national threshold, districts remaining unchanged at the next election, the assurance that the winning party would have enough seats to enable it to govern without hiccups and some technical issues relating to the voting process and voting rights.

He said an agreement to keep Gozo as a single district and the proportionality of seats to first count votes was soon reached, but there was no agreement on a national threshold.

"AD originally wanted a threshold of about 1.7 per cent and then increased it to five per cent. The PN wanted a threshold of 7.5 per cent. The MLP was happy with a five per cent threshold but there had to be safeguards to ensure that a party that obtained a strong relative majority would be in a position to govern by giving it a number of seats. AD also suggested a low threshold where a party obtained an absolute majority, and a higher threshold where there was no absolute majority."

After a break in talks, there were informal contacts between Dr Falzon and PN secretary general Joe Saliba.

"We managed to break the deadlock," Dr Falzon said.

Both parties agreed to leave Gozo intact as a district. As the Constitution stipulated that there may not be a difference of more than five per cent in the number of votes between districts, there will have to be a constitutional amendment to allow Gozo not to be affected by this. The five per cent median will, however, be retained for the other districts.

The PN and the MLP also agreed that the apportionment of seats on the first-count votes will be applicable for both the winning party and the opposition. This means there could be more than the present 65 seats in the House.

"I'd say these amendments are a major milestone as the district gerrymandering that has been practised on and off over the past 40 years will be a thing of the past. I think that both the MLP and the PN looked at the broader picture. Of course, it's not perfect. Nothing is, but it's three big steps forward," Dr Falzon said.

The issue of having a national threshold was not agreed upon, because one of the most worrying aspects of introducing a low threshold was the fear that this would undermine the ability of a winning party to govern, Dr Falzon said.

"It had also been suggested that there would be a rounding up in the number of seats, so if a party gets 52.1 per cent of the votes and that translates to 35.2 seats, that party would get 36 seats, Dr Falzon said.

He argues against introducing a low threshold as this could allow sectarian interest groups, or other political groups, with a low but widespread support, to make it to Parliament and have the government at their beck and call.

"AD had declared they would announce beforehand whom they would side with in a case like this, but such a declaration means nothing at law and was discarded by all parties later on in the talks," Dr Falzon said.

Don't blame the big parties

"AD is blaming the political parties when, in fact, it is voters who have kept them away from Parliament. Our electoral system allows as many parties as one can imagine to contest. It is the people who have consistently decided to relegate small parties. So if AD is criticising anyone, it's the voters themselves who they are criticising because it's the people who vote in this way," Dr Scerri said.

He argued there were misconceptions in people's minds about the 16.6 per cent national threshold required to have a seat in Parliament. On a district level, one can get elected with fewer than 2,000 votes as it's usually only the first four who get elected by reaching the quota. The fifth one is elected by being the runner-up with the highest number of votes.

Dr Scerri argued that using AD's own argument - that they should get an MP if they get 4,000 votes nationwide - then a candidate who contests two districts and fails to get elected even though polling 2,000 votes in each district should get a seat in Parliament.

"If one looks at figures, in reality, AD got 2,700 votes from 13 districts in the last election and the number of voters for AD has declined over the years. They should be looking at their policies and approach to see if that has anything to do with their dwindling support rather than attacking everyone else and blaming it all on everybody, except themselves."

Dr Scerri said AD was relying on traditional PN supporters to vote for them, but at the same time, it was constantly criticising PN policies. "If our policies are incongruent, how can they aspire to get number two votes from PN supporters?" he asked.

He said it was important for electoral laws to ensure proportionality as well as the ability to govern. If there was going to be a national threshold, this had to ensure that a party that has relatively strong support is represented in Parliament.

"But it also has to ensure that the country will not be held to ransom by someone who would want to ridicule the system. It is clear that a party that has 16 per cent of the votes deserves a number of seats and is a relatively strong party. Democracy also works for those who do not believe in it but one has to be careful that democracy does not commit suicide," Dr Scerri said.

Governability issue, just a 'smoke screen'

Dr Vassallo feels it is obvious both the MLP and PN were fearing AD, as otherwise they would not have reached such an agreement behind their backs.

"The agreement is a joke as no party ever said Gozo should not be a district in its own right. I would go a step further and say that if the number of voters in Gozo keeps growing, they should get more than five seats in Parliament.

"For us, these issues are administrative ones and should be taken for granted. The issue that really matters, establishing a realistic threshold so that a party that has a certain following makes it to Parliament, will not be included because it is not in the interest of the main political parties."

Dr Vassallo argues that the current 16.7 per cent quota existed because of the arithmetic of having five MPs from every district.

"One solution could be to have fewer districts and a lower threshold. The fact that the bigger parties are ignoring the results of the elections for the European Parliament, where AD polled 23,000 votes, shows how democratic the parties are. Even if one says that was a fluke, it was one hell of a fluke, but cutting that by half still means we had 12,000 votes," Dr Vassallo said.

He wondered why the PN had, in the latest round of talks, wanted to raise the threshold to 7.5 per cent when in the previous round of talks the Gonzi Commission had proposed a five per cent threshold. "If you work it out, 7.5 per cent of the electorate is roughly equivalent to the amount of votes AD got at the European Parliamentary elections".

Dr Vassallo feels that the governability argument is just a smoke screen. "Groups like hunters and supporters of Norman Lowell could have made an impact during the European elections. They did not. The ability to govern argument holds no water. If a party loses 1.5 per cent of its support on any issue, it can lose an election so a party can't touch burning issues.

"That's why AD can be of service. The parties that do not have the guts to take the decisions that have to be taken can blame it on us if we are in Parliament. Issues like divorce, spring hunting, rent laws and other issues that have long been on the agenda but never tackled, can be addressed with us in Parliament. Our coalition partner can say it had to do it because of us. In that way, they do not suffer any electoral damage," he said.

"All this sowing of fear of us having a few MPs is not built on anything tangible. If the PN and MLP got 48 per cent each with AD getting the rest, the major parties can easily form a coalition between them.

"We have no experience of coalitions in Malta. Our policies are very clear. We want clean water and clean air. We want to have a Whistleblower Act. These are the issues we speak about, not chaos, as the other parties imply. Why is there such a fear of us getting a seat?"

Dr Vassallo says he was misreported when he was quoted as saying he would resign if AD failed to get four seats in the next general election.

"We shall win as many as people would give us. When I was misquoted, I was speaking against those who hung on to power, like Alfred Sant remaining leader of the MLP or Eddie Fenech Adami becoming President.

"The issue of governability is just an excuse to ensure that the MLP and PN are never threatened by a party such as AD," he said.