As independent MP Marlene Farrugia and others seek to form a new political force, Leonard Callus looks at how an electoral system that was meant to spawn multiple parties has actually produced an entrenched two-party tradition.
Maltese politicians smelt a rat when Morrison Bell from the Proportional Representation Society visited Malta in 1920 to explain the Single Transferable Vote system in the run-up to the 1921 Constitution. The Maltese needed unity to confront British imperial authorities. “We cannot permit ourselves the luxury of too many party divisions,” Enrico Mizzi, leader of the Democratic Nationalist Party, told him.
The Governor, Herbert Plumer, insisted that the political elite’s opposition was “influenced by party considerations only”.
Eventually, the British government rejected Maltese objections, claiming the STV was “best calculated to secure the fairest and most exact representation of all parties and points of view, to give the widest choice and, therefore, the greatest measure of political power to the voter”.
In reality, the British decision was inspired by divide-and-rule considerations. But the outcome was just the opposite!
In the short term,...
