Government should embark on a thorough exercise to reform local councils to make them more gender inclusive, Equality Commissioner Renee Laiviera said on Tuesday.
As Malta prepares for local council elections on June 8, the same day as the European Parliament elections, Laiviera said female local council candidates do well at the ballot box but there are not enough standing for election.
“Our biggest challenge is not that people don’t vote for female candidates but a lack of female candidates,” she said.
Data which Laiviera presented as part of a report on women’s representation in local councils shows that the number of female candidates contesting local councils and those elected is similar.
Women constituted 26 per cent of candidates in the last local council elections while 25.6 per cent of elected councillors are women.
Valletta, Vittoriosa, Żebbuġ, Dingli, Għajnsielem, Ta’ Kerċem, Nadur and Xagħra only have male councillors, according to the report.
Żejtun, on the other hand, has more women than men on their council.
Laivera was presenting a series of recommendations made by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality to increase women’s participation in local government.
Four recommendations were directed at the government, three to political parties and two to the Local Councils Association.
Creating policies and support structures that can prevent and deal with online and offline abuse of local councillors, including sexual abuse, is one way the government wants to achieve this.
Changing the time and format of local council meetings, as well the pay given to councillors and mayors are other ways the government can achieve that goal, the report says.
Another recommendation proposes that by-elections should be scrapped and councillors who resign should be replaced by co-option.
“Whenever vacant posts on local councils are to be filled directly by individuals chosen by the political parties - and not via an election process - the parties should prioritise by choosing persons from the under-represented sex for such post,” the report reads.
A €90 registration fee to submit a candidacy should also be scrapped.
Political parties should have better balanced party lists of women and men in local elections and “adequate visibility" should be given to the local council candidates of the under-represented sex on the party media and at party events, the report recommends.
Local Government Parliamentary Secretary Alison Zerafa Civelli said the government will soon implement legislative reforms to scrap the registration fee for candidates and will work towards implementing the other reforms.
Equality Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg said the Labour Party has a healthy amount of female local council candidates for the upcoming local council elections in June.