The talk of a third party in Parliament is discussed sporadically every few years. Many people seem to like the idea, while others seem to be afraid of it.

While I understand that in many cases change may indeed be scary, in some cases change is inevitable. This is exactly the case for Malta.

The recent political situation indicates that a change must occur. We are currently witnessing the PN and the PL throwing mud at each other every day. The party stations, the political bloggers and the party diehards are waging war against the same kinds of people in the opposite camp. What ensues is a war in which both camps are trying to prove who is worse.

Even independent TV programmes are being hijacked by partisan politicians who have no intention other than to throw mud at their opponents. Xarabank on Konrad Mizzi’s case turned into a shouting match. The audience also contributed by cheering loudly every time the representative from the party they supported talked.

The atmosphere during Times Talk was even worse as David Thake and Glen Bedingfield did not even try to hide their partisan attitude. The programme became a shouting match, and rational discourse was absent.

However, there is an alternative to this. A third party currently exists and it already has quite a steady following. At the last general election AD obtained 1.8 per cent of the total vote, resulting in a total of over 5,500 votes. This number increased to over 7,500 in the last MEPs election. Were we to have a system of proportional representation, AD would be in Parliament. However, what we have is an unfair, undemocratic system which makes it very hard for anyone not belonging to the two parties to get into Parliament.

I believe that if we truly want change then we need to vote for it. A small push could change our current system for the better, and then Malta will never be the same again.