Permanently fixed electoral districts

The latest revision of the electoral district boundaries has prompted me to make a suggestion that would eliminate the need to carry out such revisions, once permanent districts are established. Why should districts defined for the purpose of holding an election be different from another set of districts created for administration purposes? Why shouldn't it be possible to establish districts with fixed boundaries that would first and foremost be used for administration purposes? And then, once established, use these districts also as a base for the electoral system?

Malta could be divided up into a fixed number of districts, each made up of contiguous localities that already have fixed boundaries, Gozo being one such district. Once these districts are established, all government departments and other entities could organise their customer-oriented services in such a way that life is made easier for the consumer, possibly offering their services per district in a central locality as is presently happening in Gozo. People would identify themselves with the district as much as they today identify themselves with their local town or village.

A general election would then be just one of the administrative activities that happens every five years and which serves to elect the country's representatives in Parliament. Mathematical methods do exist to ensure proportional representation.

I would now briefly describe how one such system would give the desired result. It is important that such a system would be effective, irrespective of the number of districts, the size of the districts, the number of parties contesting the election, or the number of candidates per district. There would be no need to change our present voting system to obtain such a result.

The following steps would be followed in such a system:

The total number of MPs that are to be elected to Parliament is fixed; the number of districts is also determined, thus arriving at the number of prospective electors per district; dividing this number of prospective electors by the average number of electors per district would then determine the number of elected candidates for that particular district. It is worth noting at this stage that although the seats in Parliament would not all be worth an equal number of valid votes or be within a pre-determined limit, all candidates within a particular district would be competing at par.

Once election day is over, the method of counting of the ballot papers comes into play. The first count of valid votes per district is established. The average quota over the whole country is also worked out. This average quota is used to determine which would be the winning political party and also the number of MPs that each political party should have at the final count.

A threshold could possibly be introduced at this stage as a qualifying limit for a party to be represented in Parliament. And since the election is determined on the number of first count votes, it would also be worth considering eliminating the possibility of transfer of votes between parties. This would give a neater result, but is not a prerequisite.

The quota per district is worked out as being equivalent to one plus the whole number resulting when dividing the total number of first count valid votes by the total number of seats to be elected in the particular district. This would eliminate the inaccuracy the present system has as a result of a wastage of one quota per district.

At the last count per district, a number of candidates (equivalent to the total number of seats per district less one) are elected by a full quota. Parties gaining seats will also have one runner-up per district with a number of votes equivalent to less than a whole quota. The votes of these candidates are then expressed into a percentage quota within their particular district. With these figures available, a list of runners-up per party for the whole of Malta is compiled, the one with the highest part of a quota being the top one on the list.

The number of candidates of a particular political party, elected by a whole quota, is deducted from the total number of MPs that the party was previously allocated relative to its first count votes. The resulting number of candidates still to be elected per party are then chosen from the list of runners-up of the respective parties, starting with the top one on the list. Thus, while ensuring that the political party with the highest number of first count valid votes wins the election, a final list of MPs per party is also obtained. This concludes the electoral process.

It is understood that the political parties have started talks on improving the electoral system. Let us all hope that a system is found that would eliminate once and for all the need of boundary revisions. All the parties' energies could then be diverted to so many other urgent matters that need their full attention, ideally working together.