Malta’s political parties will continue struggling with good-governance reforms unless the electoral system is “radically changed”, a group of sustainable governance experts have warned.

In a country-specific report, drawn up as part of the Sustainable Governance Indicators 2019 project done by the independent German-based Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation, governance experts found that compromise on reforms between the island’s political parties is “proving difficult”.

The winner-takes-all approach ... bred a destructive politics of division and mutual distrust.

“Some believe that a shift from a two-party to a multi-party system may erode this us-against-them polarisation. However, for this to happen, the electoral system has to be radically changed; under the current situation, every party that hopes to make it to Parliament must work within the system.

“It will not be easy for the parties to compromise on a change,” the experts lament in the report published earlier this week.

Malta’s electoral system, they said, pushes society “towards clientelism and patronage” with debate on systemic change still “in its infancy”.

The experts go on to describe the country’s electoral system as embodying a “winner-takes-all approach” that has “bred a destructive politics of division and mutual distrust”.

The experts also went on to echo concerns flagged by the Council of Europe last year that the Prime Minister holds too much power.

They argue that the legislature should not be a part-time institution where its members dedicate only a fraction of their time to parliamentary affairs.

On the construction industry, which is described as “thriving”, the experts found that this continued to “drive polarisation in the debate over environmental issues”.

“Recent reforms that decoupled the planning and environmental authorities must be reassessed to ensure that both authorities participate fully in decisions related to development planning and the protection of Malta’s natural habitats,” the experts said.