The solution is in the problem

During a meeting with representatives of women’s rights organisations held on 19th February, Prime Minister Robert Abela was quoted as saying that the number of women in Parliament and the government is unacceptable to him. He was also quoted as saying t

While the proposed mechanism will bring female representation to a quasi parity with that of males in the House, it will – at least in the first years of each government – fail to give the same balance in the Cabinet, because we will most likely not see a parity of genders in the line-up of Ministers. Unfortunately, the proposed mechanism will only bring the balance in the House late in the day for any Prime Minister to have the option of choosing enough females to a have a gender-balanced cabinet. A better mechanism than the one being proposed has to be found for having all MPs elected on the same day rather than having casual elections – and the eventual co-opting of the under-represented gender MPs – way past the day by which the Prime Minister chooses the members of his Cabinet.

Lately, many people have expressed themselves either in favour of or against the gender parity mechanism. Those arguing against go as far as saying that our balanced representation among the six members of the European Parliament (MEP) is proof that we do not need any mechanism to bring around gender parity, even in the House. I beg to differ. If anything, our 16year-old MEP representation confirms that the people’s representatives are, first and foremost, elected through the power of incumbency.

Malta’s first two European Parliament elections elected male MEPs only. Yes, for those who have a short memory these are the facts. Simon Busuttil, Joseph Muscat, John Attard Montalto, David Casa and Louis Grech were elected in the first ever European Parliament election held in Malta in 2004. Simon Busuttil, David Casa, Louis Grech, Edward Scicluna and John Attard Montalto were elected in the 2009 election. Once Malta received its sixth seat in the EP, they were joined by Joseph Cuschieri.

In the 2009-2014 legislature, Louis Grech and Edward Scicluna resigned and the first two female MEPs – Marlene Mizzi and Claudette Abela Baldacchino – were elected to replace them through a casual election. Later, Roberta Metsola took over from Simon Busuttil in another casual election. In the following election, in 2014, two of the now incumbent MEPs were re-elected;

Abela Baldacchino did not contest again and two new female candidates were elected, one being Miriam Dalli – whose exposure in the Labour Party media, coupled with her skills, earned her a seat.

For the Partit Nazzjonalista, Therese Comodini Cachia was elected to join the two incumbent PN MEPs and filled a seat that the PN won for the first time ever. A closer look at the election result suggests that, had Francis ZAMMIT Dimech run as Francis CASSAR Dimech, the result would have been otherwise in view of the impact of what is known as ‘donkey voting’.

In the European Parliament election last year, two elected female MEPs were incumbents while the third filled the 4th seat, a new one, for the Labour Party, once again showing that if there was no ‘empty’ seat, the second female would not have made it. In the short history of Malta’s European Parliament elections, only three of the incumbent MEPs who sought re-election failed to be re-elected: Glenn Bedingfield, Joseph Cuschieri and Francis Zammit Dimech.

A total of 79 per cent of incumbent MEPs who sought re-election were successful while the only three who were not only represented 21 per cent of the unsuccessful incumbents. It is very interesting to note that all three of them had been elected in either a casual election or a corrective measure, in the first place.

In his Doctor of Philosophy thesis in the Faculty of Humanities, entitled The Single Transferable Vote system and its consequences for representation: The case of Malta, Dr Hermann Schiavone carried out a very significant exercise to assess the power of incumbency in the Maltese electoral system. The results of the exercise show that, in all the elections held in Malta between 1947 and 2008, 72 per cent of both male and female MPs seeking re-election were, in actual fact, re-elected.

On the other hand, those who argue that female representation is highly influenced by our electoral system – the Single Transferable Vote (STV) – are in for a disappointment. Academic studies have shown that there is no direct link between female under-representation and the STV system. Although the STV system is used in other countries, such as the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, Australia’s Federal Upper House and Senate, the Scottish wards and also in a few of New Zealand’s local authorities, studies have shown that proportional representation systems, such as the STV, do not in any way discriminate against women.

In her Paper, The Single Transferable Vote and Women’s Representation in Ireland, Claire McGing concludes that: “... voter preferences for incumbency all act to suppress the election of more women.” The ‘all’ here refers to systems of Party competition which is also predominant in Malta and which must be addressed as well.

There is no reason to think otherwise. The power of incumbency in our electoral system is key to the reason why, in 2020, we only have eight female MPs out of 65 in our House. One way – or the only way – of defeating the power of incumbency is through incumbency itself. Let us have a starting point where our House returns a close to 50/50 representation for reelection. Let us have a corrective mechanism in place, for a pre-determined period of time, until the mechanism itself creates an incumbency of a gender-balanced House.

In my next piece I will propose a system how the Prime Minister can also have an equal representation not just in parliament but also in cabinet.

Angelito Sciberras is a former Assistant Secretary General of Partit Nazzjonalista and Director of the Partit Nazzjonalista electoral office ELCOM.