By Mario Mallia

You might be tempted to think this country is in the process of a paradigm shift. Sant and Fenech Adami, with their respective party entourage, are coming together for talks on the electoral law. A breath of fresh air, one might argue, until you realise no one is talking about the fundamental issues.

Malta boasts of having a system of proportional representation. But the district system has been used to thwart proportional representation in such a way as to allow the possibility of having 16.6% of votes cast being thrown to the dogs. The result? An electoral system that serves to exclude rather than include. Alternattiva Demokratika has been robbed of a seat in parliament election after election, making us the only country in Europe to have just two parties in parliament. This has translated itself into a drone of monochrome politics, where the reds are eternally pitted against the blues, where democratic jargon common elsewhere such as alliances, coalition building and the like, are mere buzzwords in some dusty political handbook.

A national quota would go a long way in respecting the popular vote. Stability would be inherently guaranteed, because no party could afford to behave irresponsibly and lose the people’s trust. Look at the other European states, from tiny Gibraltar to Luxembourg and Cyprus, from Germany to France and Switzerland. All have a national quota. None have evaporated. In addition, a national quota would also help open up the suffocating electoral districts which have proved to be the breeding ground for cronyism, and internal bickering among same party candidates.

In an era where freedom of choice is being bandied about, isn’t it high time that discourse pushing for inclusion, is injected in the same political arena that pontificates on the need for inclusion in other areas?

It is these issues that the PN and the MLP should be talking about. Otherwise, the exercise of round-the-table talks currently underway will just look like a smoke screen that keeps making fools of us all.

Mario Mallia is the secretary general of Alternattiva Demokratika

 
 By Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi

We should tread very carefully when looking at the proposed idea of changing our electoral system from the Single Transferable Vote to that of a National Threshold.

Not only will this involve a radical change to our system, but, although it might provide some solutions to certain problems, it will not eradicate all of them and could also produce some new ones.

One argument that we hear about is that moving towards a National Threshold system will do away with gerrymandering. But we should also bear in mind that this system will diminish the direct say voters have in electing their MPs.

A National Threshold system depends more on the parties themselves, with the vote going to the party rather than a specific MP. In our present system, although the party has significance, it is secondary to the MP, which personalises the vote and allows the electorate to choose the people they believe can contribute most to their district. We can safely say that the Single Transferable Vote lets the people choose both the party and the MP.

In line with this, one can also argue that it is natural for our MPs and other candidates to focus on specific areas when they are canvassing. People live and work by districts, and surely this is to the benefit of the community. I can speak from my personal experience when I contested the last election and I am sure most other candidates feel the same. For example, if your heart and soul are focused in Mellieha, however hard you work among the population, you will naturally return to your roots.

The removal of districts will lose some of this community spirit and the focus that falls on our various localities, which will be a shame.

It is true to say that no system is perfect and also that both parties have used the system to their benefit at certain times in history.

But in the present circumstances, I consider the Single Transferable Vote system to be one of the fairest around. We must, after all, always bear in mind the pros and cons of an electoral system and the consequences of any changes, especially radical ones.

Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi is a Labour party candidate and a lawyer