ADPD have started constitutional proceedings challenging the validity of an electoral system they say is discriminatory and working to keep smaller parties out of parliament. 
 
The challenge was prompted by Parliament's approval of a law on gender representation last month.  
 
Both this law and another law, ensuring parties are represented in parliament based on the number of seats their candidates get, do not apply if parliament is composed of more than two parties.

Cacopardo explained that these laws rendered the entire electoral system discriminatory, and the party would be challenging the foundation of the system as a whole.
   
“These two laws consolidate a discriminatory barrier through which a two-party parliament keeps out other parties, but what we realised is that we need to address the entire electoral system,” said ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo. 

He explained that, over the years, ADPD had made several proposals on achieving gender parity in parliament and making parliament representative of the popular vote, without excluding third parties. 
 
“The latest proposal we made attempts to address gender imbalance within parliament by focusing on a gender-balanced candidate list, which will not involve having to add seats to parliament, but it hasn’t been acknowledged,” Cacopardo said. 
 
“Our proposals have been ignored and we have no choice but to resort to court to remove this discrimination from the electoral system,” he said. 
 
The law introducing a gender corrective mechanism, if a gender gets less than 40% of the available seats, will allow a maximum of 12 seats - six on either side of the House, to be added. 
 
However, this mechanism will only apply if parliament is composed of members of parliament from only two political parties. 

The corrective mechanism on proportionality also works in a similar way, in that it is restricted in its application to a parliament made up of two parties.