The Maltese General Election 2022 : applying the results to illustrate Malta’s PR-STV and its majority and gender corrective mechanisms

Abstract

An electoral system is defined as “the set of rules that structure how votes are cast at elections for a representative body and how these votes are then converted into seats in that body (Gallagher & Mitchell, 2008, p. 632). Since the birth of Malta’s Parliamentary democracy in 1921 (Fenech, 2021), this country has been using the Single Transferable Vote of Proportional Representation (hereinafter PR-STV) to elect Members of Parliament (MPs). This has also been used for Local Council Elections since 1993 and European Parliament elections since 2004. For the General Election, candidates run for elections on one (or two) of the 13 electoral districts, where Parliamentary seats are won by those who obtain the required quota. Five MP’s are elected from each district, excluding the bonus seats. The maximum length of a Parliamentary term is five years. On the 26 March 2022, voters elected the 14 th Legislature since Independence. This paper provides a step-by-step account of how 79 MPs were selected via the PR-STV; the Majority Corrective Mechanism; the Casual Elections and the Gender Corrective Mechanism, based on the official results published by the Electoral Commission (2022). Moreover, this paper evaluates the impact of the gender corrective mechanism and asserts that it must not be a stand-alone measure.