Coalition government impossible

Harry Vassallo keeps on dreaming that once in Parliament, AD can be a part of a coalition government (February 5). Although this is possible in theory, realistically and practically, it is absolutely impossible.

Nobody seems to have noticed that the way the current boundaries of the electoral districts have been drawn up is heavily slanted in favour of the MLP.

The MLP will, therefore, certainly obtain an absolute majority in the 65 seats (five from each of 13 districts) being contested in the election, irrespective of the percentage of the first preference votes garnered.

The Constitutional correcting mechanism intended to bring about a distribution of seats that reflects the distribution of first preference votes between political parties is triggered if the elected members of the House of Representatives are from only two parties. There is no such mechanism in the case of more than two parties being represented in Parliament, except in the case of one party obtaining an absolute majority of votes. In this situation there would be no case for a coalition government.

In a scenario where no party obtains an absolute majority of votes, if AD or AN elect one or more MPs, these will simply be opposition MPs sitting next to the elected Nationalist MPs on the opposition benches; while the MLP will have a majority of seats without needing to forge any coalition with any other party.