Malta Women’s Lobby have expressed serious concern about ‘the manipulation’ of the gender-balancing mechanism, saying it is ‘a slap in the face to those who have fair representation at heart.’

Earlier this week PN candidate Janice Chetcuti said she would not be contesting the casual election to give others the chance to win a seat since she would still make it to parliament through the gender quota.

In a statement on Saturday, the NGO pointed out that by foregoing the opportunity to contest a by-election, to then make use of the gender mechanism, “means that other women that are in line to benefit from this same mechanism, would be excluded from the process altogether.”

“Essentially, those women who opt to miss out on the by-election process, are denying that same opportunity to the women candidates who would have possibly agreed to contest the election in view of the stronger chance they stood in making it to parliament and contributing towards addressing the current discrepancy in fair representation,” the NGO underlined.

The lobby criticised the abuse of the gender quota mechanism, highlighting that having another candidate represent a particular constituency was “nothing but a veiled excuse” and that it was evident party matters were being prioritised over democratic representation. 

"One does not need to be a member of parliament to work for the members of any community, especially if they are already active within the structure of a political party," the lobby said.

It said it was pleased to note that, in spite of pressure on some women candidates not to contest the by-election, women have still participated fully in this process. 

The NGO reiterated its commitment towards ensuring that politicians no longer be allowed to ignore half of the population.

"The perception of women as second class citizens needs to stop now," they said.