Raphael Vassallo
With only three weeks to go for Malta’s second MEP election on June 6, the Prime Minister yesterday put paid to months of speculation by finally revealing the method by which a sixth seat would be allocated to Malta in the European Parliament, in the event that the Lisbon Treaty is ratified in October.
Speaking on behalf of Dr Gonzi “as party leader”, PN information director Frank Psaila yesterday replied to MaltaToday’s questions by explaining that the sixth seat should be elected on the basis of the same system already envisaged in our Constitution in the case where additional seats need to be assigned (first subarticle of article 52 of the Constitution):
Effectively this is the same method already used to secure the “majority rule” principle for the 1987, 1996 and 2008 General Election results, when the party which won the popular vote was denied a parliamentary majority on account of the way the electoral districts had been drawn up.
The only difference is that in a European election there is only one district for the whole country. In practice, this means that the exact same method used in four specific districts to decide the “extra” seats which enabled the Nationalists to form a government in March 2008, will now be used on the basis of the single national district in the June election.
“This option is preferred because organizing another election simply to elect the sixth MEP (if and when the Lisbon Treaty comes into force), does not appear to be a practical solution,” Psaila said. “Neither is it ideal to recount the votes cast on the basis of a different quota (six instead of five), as this solution could create undesirable and unexpected results, including the loss by a sitting MEP of his mandate, as well as preventing the election of other MEPs in the event of a casual election at a later date.”
FRank Psaila also used the opportunity to send out a message on behalf of the PM to Nationalist voters:
“Electors participating at the 6th June election therefore need to keep this in mind since the same low participation rate by PN voters as happened in 2004 is likely to give Labour four seats in the EU Parliament out of six,” he said.
Elsewhere, it is understood that this solution would be acceptable to the Labour Party, whose leader Joseph Muscat recently urged the Prime Minister to announce his decision before the election in June.
Efforts to contact Dr Muscat for his reaction proved fruitless yesterday, though Green Party chairman Arnold Cassola, who last Saturday also called for a solution to this problem, expressed satisfaction at the proposal.
“It appears to be an acceptable solution to all parties concerned,” he said. “The only pity is that it should have come only now, with 18 days to go before the election, and only in response to a journalist’s questions. It would have far been more preferable to explain this six months ago, in order to allow time to explain to the electorate that their vote on June 6 will also elect the sixth Maltese MEP should a sixth seat become available.”
The precise mechanism is explained in the Constitution as follows: “In any case as foreseen in the first and second proviso to this sub-article, such persons shall be declared by the Electoral Commission to be elected to fill the additional seats created by the said provisos who, being candidates of the party which is to be credited with the additional seats, were credited by the Electoral Commission at the last count with the highest or next higher number of votes without being elected, irrespective of the division in which such highest or higher number of votes occurs.”
Originally this Constitutional safeguard was drawn up only as a temporary measure to avoid a repeat performance of the notorious 1981 election result, which permitted the Labour party to remain in power despite losing the popular vote.
After a parliamentary committee failed to reach a compromise ahead of the 1987 election, a deal was brokered between former PM Dom Mintoff and PN deputy leader Guido de Marco.
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