Women succeeded in winning just over 11 per cent of the votes in last week’s election, despite a higher number of women running than the 2013 election.

Of the 310,665 valid votes cast in the snap election, only 35,850 of them went to women, resulting in just eight being elected.

The women candidates only increased the number of votes polled by one percentage point. In 2013, 10.5 per cent of all the valid votes cast went to women.

The next legislature will only see eight women in Parliament, a drop from 10. In the 2008 election, five women were elected. The figure doubled in 2013, but this year plummeted again.

Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana

On the Labour side, three candidates secured parliamentary seats: Helena Dalli, Justyne Caruana and Julia Farrugia Portelli.

All three were selected by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to form part of the new Cabinet, with Dr Dalli appointed European Affairs and Equality Minister and Dr Caruana serving as Gozo Minister. Ms Farrugia Portelli, a former journalist who contested for the first time, was appointed parliamentary secretary for reforms, citizenship and simplification.

The Nationalist Party had four female candidates elected: Kristy Debono, Therese Comodini Cachia, Claudette Buttigieg and Marthese Portelli. Democratic Party leader Marlene Farrugia – who contested the election under the PN ticket as part of the Forza Nazzjonali coalition – was also elected, making her the first female leader of a third party in Malta’s Parliament.

European Affairs and Equality Minister Helena Dalli

Ms Debono, an economist, was immediately assured a place in Parliament after being elected on the first count, becoming the second woman in the party’s history to do so.

The first was Giovanna Debono in Gozo.

Dr Dalli was the most popular female candidate, getting elected in the two districts she contested and winning a total of 8,759 votes.

On the PN side, Ms Portelli also proved popular, winning 4,090 personal votes from two districts, while Ms Debono won 4,022 votes from one district.

The results once again suggest that Malta could again rank low when the number of women in Parliament is compared to that in other countries.

The last legislature (2013-2017) included 10 women among its 69 parliamentarians, which left Malta at a miserable 143rd place in an interparliamentary union ranking of countries’ share of women MPs.

This legislature could see Malta dropping several places down the list, putting it at a par with Djibouti and Ivory Coast.

Rwanda, Bolivia and Cuba top the international list. Iceland is the first-ranked European country (4th), followed by Sweden (6th) and Finland (9th).