Editorial

It has been a decade since the Maltese electorate last had four political parties on the ballot paper, yet that would appear to be in store for the forthcoming general election.

A new grouping, Azzjoni Nazzjonali, was formally launched two Saturdays ago and has declared its intention to stand for the general election with a pledge of bringing about change in the way we do politics.

Having a plurality of political parties could be seen as positive in a democracy, giving a voice to more sections of society, even if, all over Europe, smaller parties are losing ground to the bigger ones.

Smaller parties, unfortunately, raise the spectre of weak government, with groupings electing only a few candidates having king-maker powers.

In Malta's case, where the government is chosen on the basis of a majority of first-count votes but parliamentary seats are credited on the basis of the last count (with adjustments only allowed when a party wins an absolute majority of votes provided candidates are only elected from two parties), the election of a third party candidate may even lead to an anomalous situation where a single party wins an absolute majority of seats without any party winning an absolute majority of votes.

However, what the big parties fear most is that the smaller parties, without getting anyone elected, may take just enough votes from them to enable their rivals to win by default.

All this, of course, is no reason to discourage the formation of new parties. To do so would be undemocratic. Indeed, the more parties there are the stronger the people's voice, provided, of course, such groupings embrace democratic principles and do not merely seek to hold the balance of power. What should have been done, long ago, was ensuring that this democratic right cannot translate into an undemocratic result.

What will concern the people is not how the electoral system works but what the new party stands for. Josie Muscat, a leader of the new grouping, has argued that the local political system has been hijacked by the two main political parties that completely disregard the people. But then how does one explain the huge turnout at general elections? Is it a case of voting to keep the other party out, perhaps?

That said, will the new party be trying to attract voters because they are disgruntled or will it seek support on the basis of its own merits? Dr Muscat wants to give more powers to the President to ensure accountability in the country's institutions. Something along these lines was tried in the 1980s but proposed constitutional amendments never won the support they needed.

AN also wants to outlaw underhand political party funding. So say all of us, but just how such a system will work needs to be explained.

Promising to tackle the migration flow might attract people's attention, but only if proposals are seen to be viable. Dr Muscat has spoken of accepting migrants for a month only and then sending them to another country. But what if no other country accepts them?

His proposals on curbing benefit fraud will draw attention but, whenever a move in that direction was made, it was much easier said than done, partly because of a weak political will. What has been said so far is vague, but it is still early days. Voters will, however, expect fresh ideas from a party that wants to breathe fresh air into the political system.