Result should reflect proportionality

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's promise to give priority to a revision of our electoral system is most welcome. It is unacceptable that our supposedly proportional representation electoral system should have produced perverse results, almost systematically, since December 1981. Either the system itself is perverse, or it is being manipulated to exploit its weaknesses to produce perverse results. In either case, the Maltese electorate is being cheated.

The amendments made to the Constitution to counter these regular perverse results can only be described as improvised patchwork, not worthy of the country's highest legal document. Parliament, which has been the monopoly of two political parties throughout, is solely responsible for this. Will the new Parliament react more responsibly to the attempts promised by the Prime Minister? For this to come about, both parties must look on the issue as a national one, rather than a misguided sectarian exercise in promoting perceived party interests.

The debate should not be restricted to confidential consultations between the two parties. Unfortunately, the composition of the Electoral Commission, as well as the Broadcasting Authority and other similar national institutions, reflect a mentality that only the two main political parties represent balanced national interests. The result is often a stalemate, or a consensus, at the lowest possible level.