Green Party files judicial protest over electoral law

The Green Party yesterday filed a judicial protest claiming that the current electoral law was discriminatory and gave no chance for small parties to elect a candidate.

Alternativa Demokratika filed the judicial protest against the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker of the House and the Attorney General.

Speaking outside the court house yesterday, AD chairman Michael Briguglio said that, despite the positive proposals of the Gonzi Commission in the 1990s, nothing had been done except to change the law to strengthen the two main parties.

He said that in the last general election, the Nationalist Party had received a majority of 1,580 votes and been rewarded with extra parliamentary seats while AD received a total of 3,810 votes and had no seats.

In the judicial protest, AD said that in terms of current provisions, Article 52 of the Constitution provided for corrective action to be taken to ensure that, when two parties were elected to Parliament, the number of seats was proportional to the votes they would have won on the first count.

This clause, AD said, was discriminatory because it could only kick in if candidates from just two political parties had candidates elected to the House.

Following the last general election, a Parliamentary Select Committee was set up to discuss constitutional changes including electoral reform and AD presented its proposals to the then Speaker of the House, Louis Galea, he said.

When Dr Galea informed the committee that he was leaving his post, he told them he had already drawn up a plan to address the situation.

Despite this, the Labour Party's representatives on the Select Committee recently walked out because of a quarrel with the government on incidents in the House.

AD said this meant that Malta could return to a situation where the current discriminatory situation was not being addressed.

It called on the parties to take action to address the situation within 10 days, warning that it would otherwise resort to legal action.

Lawyer Claire Bonello signed the protest.