Election History Bites | Coalition governments

The first three elections in the 1920s produced hung parliaments that necessitated some form of arrangement between different parties to be able to govern.

In 1921, the Unione Politica Maltese (UPM) emerged as the largest party with 14 seats. Since it was three seats short of an absolute majority, the UPM initially relied on the external support of William Savona’s Labour Party (PL), which had seven seats, to govern. Later, the two parties formed a formal coalition government that saw the PL with two ministers in government.

The 1924 election saw the UPM and Gerald Strickland’s Constitutional Party (CP) each electing 10 seats, the PL seven and the Democratic Nationalist Party (DNP) five. The UPM and the CP both courted the PL to join them in government but the latter refused. The UPM under Francesco Buhagiar went on to form a minority government with the support of Enrico Mizzi’s DNP. Midway through the legislature, the UPM and DNP formally merged to form the Nationalist Party and continued in power as a minority government.

In the 1927 election, the CP and the PL formed a pre-electoral alliance, referred to as the Compact.  The CP had obtained 15 seats in the legislative assembly, two seats short of an absolute majority. The CP governed with the support of the LP, which had three seats thus ensuring the alliance had a majority. The coalition ran into problems with the Maltese Catholic Church that imposed interdiction on the CP and LP. As a result, the 1930 election was suspended by the British and Strickland’s government stayed on as caretaker.

The next coalition government was agreed after the 1950 election between Enrico Mizzi’s PN and Paul Boffa’s Malta Workers’ Party (MWP). The MWP had been formed after the Labour Party split in 1949.

The PN emerged as the largest party in the 1950 election with 12 seats out of 40. The MWP and Dom Mintoff’s Malta Labour Party (MLP), each had 11 seats. The PN and the MWP agreed to form a coalition government with Mizzi as prime minister. The government only lasted eight months and elections were held again in May 1951.

The 1951 election saw Mintoff’s MLP obtain the largest vote share at 35.7%, ahead of George Borg Olivier’s PN which obtained 35.5%. Nonetheless, the PN had 15 seats, one more than the MLP, and thus was offered the chance to form a government.

The PN and the MWP, which had seven seats, formed a coalition government with Borg Olivier as prime minister.

The next coalition government was formed in 1953 between the PN and the MWP. Although the MLP emerged as the largest party in terms of votes (44.6%) and seats (19), it fell two seats short of forming an absolute majority. The PN had 18 seats and the MWP three seats, which enabled them to form a coalition government.

Another coalition was formed in 1962. The PN obtained the most votes (42%) and most seats (25) but in a now expanded legislative assembly that had 50 seats, required one more seat to form an absolute majority. The PN had formed a pre-electoral alliance with four other minor parties, three of which were pro-Catholic Church, referred to as the Umbrella Coalition, and thus enjoyed their support in the assembly. This election was held in the shadow of the Maltese Catholic Church’s interdiction of the Malta Labour Party executive.

The next coalition of sorts developed in July 2012 when the PN government led by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi lost its one-seat majority in parliament after backbencher Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando resigned but stayed on as an independent MP.

For the remaining part of the legislature the PN government was dependent on Pullicino Orlando’s support in what was described as a “collaboration”—a coalition by any other name.

Election History Bites powered by Agenda Bookshop is a series of election-inspired stories that will be published from Monday to Friday every morning throughout the election campaign