Labour MP Aaron Farrugia

Quotas are not the right medicine to treat gender imbalance in Parliament, according to Labour MP Aaron Farrugia, who is suggesting a national ballot list just for female candidates.

Quotas did not respect the people’s choices and were discriminatory because female candidates who won less votes than their male counterparts could “jump the queue” and make it to the House, the Parliamentary Secretary for Social Dialogue said.

Instead, Dr Farrugia is proposing retaining the regular district list but adding a separate national one listing female candidates.

If a female candidate is elected from the regular district list, her name would automatically be dropped from the other list.

Ten of the female candidates whose name remains on the females’ list would be declared elected according to the number of votes they win and in proportion to their parties’ performance at the polls.

This, Dr Farrugia added, would see the number of MPs increase from 65 to 75, meaning a bigger expense and requiring changes to both the Constitution and electoral laws. Democracy had a price tag, he remarked.

Dr Farrugia acknowledged the need of a culture change and better family-friendly measures, noting that though there were a number of female local councillors and party forum members there still were fewer female election candidates when compared to men.

“Quotas are not the right medicine because we don’t have an electorate that does not vote for female candidates,” he said.

“The problem is having far fewer female candidates when compared to men.”

The two main political parties have already adopted systems targeting gender balance.

A Nationalist Party spokesman said the party was open to increasing gender equality in public office.

When Simon Busuttil was elected PN leader he had introduced a system of gender equality in the election of members for party structures.

The system involves two separate ballot papers, one for males and one for females, with voters required to choose the same number of preferred candidates from each sheet. The system ensures an equal number of men and women elected on the basis of the voters’ preference rather than imposed by quota.

“This is not a system that sets an artificial quota for women, which people would not have voted for, but a system that ensures full equal representation in the outcome nonetheless,” the spokesman said.

This system has seen the PN “dramatically” increasing the number of women participating in the party structures, centrally and on a local level.

Also, three of the party’s seven topmost posts are occupied by women, including that of secretary general. Dr Busuttil’s shadow cabinet was composed of five men and five women, something, the spokesman noted, that was unprecedented for Malta.

He said that, last month, the PN elected a record number of women to Parliament – six (20 per cent). Labour elected four.

A Labour Party spokesman noted that the party’s quota system prescribed that at least four members of the executive, out of the maximum 12, had to be women, irrespective of the number of votes won.

“Over the past years, the need for such quotas became irrelevant as female candidates who ran for the executive election won more votes than other male candidates,” he pointed out.

The party promised in its manifesto to introduce a quota mechanism for the general election and is expected to start talks with the Opposition once the PN leadership contest is concluded.

The party has not yet committed to any method.

“One has to start discussing a more family-friendly Parliament if we wish to see more women in the House,” the spokesman said.

Labour has launched the LEAD plan, pioneered by MEP Miriam Dalli, in a bid to have an equal amount of male and female candidates by 2027.