Malta : hidden change?

Abstract

On Saturday, May 24, the third European election since Malta joined the European Union (EU) was held. Malta elected six Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), one more than in 2009. The electoral system is the same as the one used in national elections, the major difference being that the 13 electoral districts are merged into one. It is a proportional system based on the single transferable vote (STV), which permits voters to enumerate as many preferences as the candidates listed on the ballot sheet (Katz, 1984). The small dimension of districts, the fact that the ‘extra’ votes obtained by party candidates are not transferred to a national pool, and acute bipartisanism have produced an almost perfect two-party system that, together with other features of the political system, makes Malta a textbook case of majoritarian democracy (Lijphart, 1999). No party apart from the two main ones - the Partit Laburista (PL) and the Partit Nazzjonalista (PN - has ever obtained representation in the Maltese parliament since 1966, nor in the European Parliament (EP) since 2004, although the greens of Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) occasionally came close to the objective.