Cynthia Busuttil
Women far from being on top in European Parliament elections
PN's Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas (left) was believed to stand a chance to be elected before she was pushed out by Labour's fourth male candidate, who also took the place of another likely woman MEP, Marlene Mizzi.
The all-male line up elected to the European Parliament has been received with disappointment by both a woman's organisation and the head of the European Parliament office in Malta.
"Although it is the prerogative of the electorate to choose its MEPs, I am somewhat disappointed that, once again, the Maltese chose to be represented by five men," Julian Vassallo, who heads the local EP office, said.
He felt that the lack of a female representative conveyed an image of an island that did not reflect the reality of women, who were successful in other walks of life.
The same feeling was voiced by the Malta Confederation of Women's Organisations, which said it was a pity that Malta was the only EU state not to manage "to ensure a more balanced representation of its electorate".
Although initially it seemed that at least one woman would be elected, the hopes for both Labour candidate Marlene Mizzi and Nationalist candidate Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas faded quickly on Tuesday. Eight females contested Saturday's MEP elections.
The confederation said the fact that no woman was elected was not due to the candidates' lack of qualifications and capabilities but showed how "invisible barriers still hamper women's access to the political sphere". It said the electorate often reflected and acted on traditional gender stereotypes by choosing men who had, until now, been the main incumbents in the world of politics. On the other hand, the confederation lauded the political parties for making an extra effort to ensure a more balanced ballot sheet.
But it added that, in order to be successful, women had to be given support and visibility by the party that had a lot of say on who got elected.
"This shows that much still needs to be done by the political parties to ensure that the women candidates they field actually have the same chances as men of being elected," it said, adding that women could make a difference by changing agendas and raising awareness on issues that mattered to all.
"Women make up more than half of the Maltese population and the political agenda should always include the perspectives, views and experiences of those who will be affected by it. The absence of Maltese women is therefore our loss."
Both Dr Metsola Tedesco Triccas and Ms Mizzi commented that people tended to vote for candidates in alphabetical order. Dr Metsola Tedesco Triccas called the situation an "alphabet democracy" and Ms Mizzi said that one should not run for politics unless their surname started with the letters A, B or C.
Asked about this, Dr Vassallo said the fact that candidates were listed in alphabetic order had an impact on the outcome. He said the island should look at innovative ways to level the playing field when it came to surnames as part of an overhaul of the counting mechanism. Although it was the smallest EU member state, counting in Malta took longest.
According to a general audit report by the European Women's Lobby published last month, Malta had the fourth lowest percentage of female candidates among the 27 EU member states. Austria had the highest percentage of female candidates, almost half of those contesting.
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V Battistino
Jun 12th 2009, 09:48
Where was the Confederation lobbying during the election campaign ? NOWHERE ! now we complain ! It should have taken advantage and organised activities where all female candidates particpated.....we had the 'luxury' of having a party presenting one candidate - a female, another party presenting two candidates - one of whom a female and both larger parties presenting two females each.....
Confederation you missed the chance !
Anthony Roberts
Jun 11th 2009, 18:35
I think that voters voted for those they felt was going to do a good job rather than whether the candidate was male or female.
Marie Roberts
P Axisa
Jun 11th 2009, 18:17
I also feel that the representation of women is important in the EP but I fail to understand why certain comments in the article attribute this phenoneman to the electorate and the political parties. If the Maltese woman feels that she should be represented in the EP then there was nothing and absolutley nothing from stopping the same women for voting for a candidate of their choice. To me it is obvious that the results reflect exactly what the electorate (including the same women) voted for!
P Debono
Jun 11th 2009, 17:44
No offence but it really riles me when the media and such "Women's Organisations" portray voters, who we seem to forget are sovereign and can thus vote for whoever they wish, as some chauvanistic pigs. The people voted for whoever they felt deserved to be MEP. Why should they change their decision just because a candidate is a woman? That would be an insult both to the woman and an unfair disadvantage to the other candidates.
It would be a sad day for this country if some form of "positive discrimination" ever came into effect.
g. scerri
Jun 11th 2009, 17:30
This article is making a lot of unfounded accusations, unless those who spoke are privy to information that the ordinary citizen does not have. When one realises how massive for Malta the stay-away vote was, it is reasonable to assume that most of those with some grey matter at the top of their heads did vote. There are other issues at stake. The age of the candidate can work against her. One cannot blame people for wanting to see EP posts filled by experienced people. On the other hand, people with a working past behind them may collect baggage that at crucial moments can play a part. This is of course a general observation.
Nathan Young
Jun 11th 2009, 14:36
@Steven Brockwell.
Marlene Mizzi did run for the LP.
J.Cassar
Jun 11th 2009, 13:02
The solution to the 'alphabet problem' could be a practice whereby political parties present their list of candidates in the order that the party members decide in an extraordinary general conference three months prior to the election.
J. Cassar
Ian Galea
Jun 11th 2009, 12:42
@John Caruana ... I agree totally. The fact that, especially Ms.Mizzi in my opinion, did not make it to the EP is a great loss to the country.
Steven Brockwell
Jun 11th 2009, 12:18
they should have run for the LP
John Caruana
Jun 11th 2009, 10:22
Besides alphabetical order I think that the political parties should have given more space to these two women by creating this kind of awareness before the election and not now that both Roberta and Marlene were not elected.
The fact is that the main aim of the PN was to push Simon to get the highest number of votes possible and David to inherit his number twos and at the same time portraying Roberta as the third preference because they wrongly assumed that they will somehow get the sixth seat.
From the PL point of view they just did not care who will get elected, they just focused on getting more votes/seats.
The underlying conclusion is that these two talented women would have been a treat to the incumbent MEPs because both Roberta and Marlene could have been capable of stealing the limelight from both Simon and Louis while at the same time be much more efficient then David and John.
Paul Xuereb
Jun 11th 2009, 09:35
It is a great pity that two intelligent women like Roberta Metzola Tedesco Triccas and Marlene Mizzi have failed to make it to the European Parliament Both of them have not only brains but also personality, and would have done Malta proud at the EP. As some women friends of mine told me during the last few days, Malta's women should be voting much more solidly for their sisters to take their rightful place alongside male Maltese MEPs - one or two of whom deserved to be elected much less than these two ladies.