Plans to introduce measures to increase the number of women in parliament are nearing completion, with a public consultation soliciting views on the issue having ended on Saturday.

A technical committee led by academic Carmen Sammut will now analyse the public’s proposals before reporting back to the government.

The public consultation process was a successful one, said parliamentary secretary Julia Farrugia Portelli, with many people having sent in their opinions. The Opposition had also taken part in the process and submitted its own proposals.

Last March, the government unveiled its plans to increase women in politics. Rather than direct gender quotas, the government is proposing to increase the number of MPs in Malta’s parliament by up to 12 more seats to ensure gender parity.

Read: Dalli and Metsola on Malta's problem with women in politics

Although the proposed measure is gender-neutral and applicable to any gender with less than 40% representation, in practice it is women who stand to gain.

Just 10 out of Malta’s 67 MPs are women, making the country an EU laggard when it comes to gender parity in political participation.

The government has set itself a 2030 target date to achieve gender equality in parliament and said that legislative measures to inflate the number of women MPs are a temporary measure which will be removed once numbers have reached a critical mass.