Parliament starts debating changes to electoral districts

Parliament started debating changes to the electoral districts proposed by the Electoral Commission that would see, among others, Birkirkara split between two districts.

The government side agrees with the proposed changes, while the Opposition is embracing the minority report penned by the Nationalist Party’s representatives on the commission.

The changes are required by the Constitution since the average number of voters per seat in some of the current districts has surpassed the 5% threshold. The most significant changes in the commission’s majority report concern Birkirkara, which will now be split between the 1st and 8th districts, and Naxxar which will see more voters shifted to the 10th District.

Other localities like Pietà and Marsaskala will also be split up between different districts, albeit to a lesser extent than Birkirkara and Naxxar.

Opening the debate on Monday, veteran Labour minister Michael Falzon said the changes proposed in the majority report will affect around 21,000 voters, while the changes proposed in the minority report will affect around 186,000 voters.

The minority report proposed a wholesale overhaul of electoral districts to preserve the unity of all localities. Under this proposal, the only locality that will be split is Swieqi, which will see the hamlet of Madliena shifted in its entirety to a different district.

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Falzon said it would be “madness” to shift half the electorate as is being proposed in the minority report. He also noted that the minority report overlooked the fact that the proposed 3rd District would surpass the 5% threshold.
On the contrary, Falzon said, the majority report keeps changes to the minimum and respects the constitutional requirement for geographical proximity of localities or parts of localities in the respective districts.

“We’ve always had localities that are split,” Falzon noted, adding it made more sense to keep the changes to the minimum.

He insisted that the proportionality mechanism introduced several years ago had rendered the composition of electoral districts irrelevant since parties would be awarded seats to reflect their first count vote. However, Falzon acknowledged that this mechanism, like the mechanism to increase the number of women MPs, would kick in only if two political parties elect MPs.

Rebutting Falzon’s argument, Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami said there could be circumstances where a third party could be represented in parliament and thus the number of seats would become crucial to determine who governs.

Fenech Adami said the proposed electoral changes will favour the Labour Party since the bigger changes were carried out in Nationalist-leaning districts. “If a third party is elected, we could end up with the party that obtains fewer votes, governing on the strength of the seats it obtains,” he said, adding he could not exclude the possibility of a political party other than the PN and PL also electing an MP.

Fenech Adami queried the logic behind the decision to split Birkirkara and rejig Naxxar, saying such changes were devious.

Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg insisted it did not make sense that the proportionality and gender corrective mechanisms only kicked in if two political parties are elected to parliament.

“It’s no wonder people out there accuse us of having two fiefdoms. The mechanism to elect more women won’t work if just one other person not from the two major parties is elected to parliament. This does not make sense,” Buttigieg said. She added: “Can’t we sit down and change the whole electoral system rather than fix it in a piecemeal fashion like we have been doing over the years?”