First ever use of gender mechanism sees 12 women elected to parliament

The election process was completed on Tuesday with the final stage being the election of 12 women MPs through the new gender corrective mechanism.

The six women MPs elected for the Labour Party are Alicia Bugeja Said, Cressida Galea, Abigail Camilleri, Amanda Spiteri Grech, Naomi Cachia and Davina Sammut Hili.

All six have never been in parliament and for five of them, this was also their first general election.

The six women MPs elected for the Nationalist Party are Janice Chetcuti, Paula Mifsud Bonnici, Julie Zahra, Bernice Bonello, Claudette Buttigieg and Eve Borg Bonello.

The mechanism enabled former MPs Mifsud Bonnici and Buttigieg to make it to parliament. The other four will be MPs for the first time.

At 18 years of age, Borg Bonello is also the youngest ever MP. A curiosity is the fact that the PN parliamentary group now includes two former Eurovision singers – Julie Zahra and Claudette Buttigieg.

After all casual elections were completed, the Electoral Commission used the mechanism to draw up a rank order of unelected female candidates based on the ratio between their last count vote and the district quota.

The PN’s Janice Chetcuti was elected first because she was left standing at the last count without being eliminated. Chetcuti had decided not to contest the casual election on the 3rd District to allow another candidate to make it to parliament from the constituency, given that she had been assured a seat through the mechanism.

The mechanism is applied if the least represented gender falls below 40% but the additional seats are capped at 12 – six for either side. All 12 seats had to be used.

28% of MPs are now women

The PL elected three women MPs in the election – Miriam Dalli, Julia Farrugia Portelli and Alison Zerafa Civelli – and another four women in the casual elections – Rosianne Cutajar, Romilda Zarb Baldacchino, Rebecca Buttigieg and Katya De Giovanni.

The PL parliamentary group will have 13 women.

The PN elected one woman MP in the election – Graziella Galea – and two women in the casual elections held today – Rebekah Cilia and Graziella Attard Previ.

The PN parliamentary group will have nine women within its ranks.

From a parliament of 79 MPs, 22 are women. This means that 28% of MPs are women, the highest ever ratio.

Gender mechanism results

PL MPs

• Alicia Bugeja Said
• Cressida Galea
• Abigail Camilleri
• Amanda Spiteri Grech
• Naomi Cachia
• Davina Sammut Hili

PN MPs

• Janice Chetcuti
• Paula Mifsud Bonnici
• Julie Zahra
• Bernice Bonello
• Claudette Buttigieg
• Eve Borg Bonello