Momentum seeking pre-electoral alliance with ADPD

Momentum will seek a pre-electoral “alliance” with the Green Party and other independent candidates, party general secretary Mark Camilleri Gambin said.

The party will also dedicate 90 per cent of its resources to the electoral districts it thinks it can succeed in, he said.

The announcements made during the centrist party’s annual general meeting on Saturday come as national polling for the party hovers at just over two per cent nationally.

“In the year that we have been formed, we have managed to garner 2.3 per cent (MaltaToday January survey). At the same time, other third parties – particularly ADPD (the Green Party) – have a similar number,” Camilleri Gambin told Times of Malta on the sidelines of the meeting.

“That means that we need to have more dialogue between third parties. We believe this is the time that this dialogue leads to us working together and creating an alliance to create needed change in Malta,” he said.

He said the exact way in which that alliance develops still needs to be discussed, but added that those talks with ADPD have already begun.

Talks with Zammit Lupi and others

The party will also approach “credible” independents for a similar arrangement.

Among the people Momentum has spoken to is independent Żebbuġ mayor Steve Zammit Lupi; however, “there isn’t any sign of progress yet”.

He added that “Steve is someone who is very valid and Momentum is open to welcoming people like him and others so that they can use our platform”.

Besides Zammit Lupi, there are “other very valid” independents, Camilleri Gambin said.

Momentum’s annual general meeting on Saturday comes just over a year after it was formed in January 2025.

The government is now entering the final year of its legislature, with a general election slated to happen at any point between now and mid-2027.  

Electoral strategy

In a presentation to party members, Camilleri Gambin outlined the party’s overarching goal of electing a third-party member of parliament in the coming election. 

Even a single seat could give a third party a lot of influence in parliament, he said. 

To do that, Camilleri said Momentum will dedicate almost all (90 per cent) of its budget and resources to “spearhead districts” in which the party believes it has a shot of securing a seat to parliament.

Those districts will also feature prominent candidates, he said.

Camilleri Gambin did not disclose which districts he deemed to be in that category and did not say how many of Malta’s 13 districts would be “spearhead districts”.

Other districts labelled “opportunity districts” will have 10 per cent of the party’s budget and resources allocated and will field “locally known candidates”.

“Token districts” will be given no budget or resources but will still field candidates, he said.

“We want to field candidates in every district so that everyone who wants to support us can do so,” Camilleri Gambin said.

Malta's electoral system

Malta is divided into 13 electoral districts, with each district electing five MPs via the single transferable vote. A candidate needs to acquire around 16 per cent of the total vote to get elected to parliament.

If only two parties are elected to parliament, which has never been the case in modern history, a mechanism exists to reflect the proportionality of first-count votes.

In the last general election, for example, the Labour Party won 11 more seats in parliament than the Nationalist Party.

However, since the PN won 41 per cent of the first-count votes to the PL’s 55 per cent, it was owed two more seats because of the mechanism, reducing the seat gap in parliament to nine.

If a third party or independent is elected to parliament, that mechanism will no longer apply.

All that would then matter is the number of seats a party manages to elect.

That could potentially lead to a repeat of the 1981 election results in which a party with a majority of first-count votes has fewer seats in parliament. 

No debt 

During the AGM, Momentum also presented their as-yet unaudited accounts for the year, showing they have almost €7,000 in assets and no debt.

Most of the money the party has came from donations (€4936), which, according to Camilleri Gambin, averaged at €15 a pop. €1980 also came from membership fees, he said. 

During the meeting the party re-elected most of its committee, including Arnold Cassola as chairperson and Mark Camilleri Gambin as general secretary.

Katya Compagno, Carmel Asciak, Natasha Azzopardi, and Matthew Agius will also retain their role in the party committee. 

Graziella Spiteri is the party's new committee member. She replaces Sumaya Ben Saad, who "remains a very active volunteer and member," Camilleri Gambin said.