Research is underway to find out what is holding back female participation in local councils, with recommendations to correct gender imbalance expected next year.

Only 27 per cent of candidates in this year’s local council elections were female, with just over a quarter (28%) of those candidates elected, said Equality junior minister Rebecca Buttigieg and Local Government junior minister Alison Zerafa Civelli on Saturday.

There are currently six localities that do not have any female councillors at all, Buttigieg noted while stressing the importance of female perspectives in local council discussions.

The research, which is being carried out by University of Malta Pro-Rector for Student and Staff Affairs and Outreach Carmen Sammut, follows a recommendation earlier this year from a technical committee that evaluated candidacy in the local council elections.

Sammut said the parliamentary gender corrective mechanism first seen in the general election two years ago could not necessarily be carried across to local council elections, with her research intended to find other methods of ensuring gender parity.

Civelli said Sammut’s research – which is due to be concluded by next September – should be joined by “other activities that are encouraging the further increase of the visibility of women in political life”.

Saturday’s press conference comes seven months after Equality Commissioner Renee Laiviera recommended the government reform local councils to make them more gender inclusive.

Speaking in April, Laiviera said: “Our biggest challenge is not that people don’t vote for female candidates but a lack of female candidates”.

And while last May the government floated the idea of introducing a gender corrective mechanism for local councils as part of its 'National Strategic Vision for Local Governments', the change was not introduced in time for this year’s elections.

Although more female councillors were elected this year than in 2019, the number of female mayors dropped by half, with only seven of Malta’s 68 local councils now led by a female mayor.

Only Birkirkara, Għargħur, Mqabba, Santa Luċija, Xewkija, Żejtun and Żurrieq have a woman at the helm.