ADPD – The Greens’ Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said that today the party has taken the first steps in launching constitutional proceedings by which it is challenging the validity of an electoral system based on discrimination.
“Over the past few weeks the Maltese Parliament has discussed and approved constitutional amendments through which it will be possible to adjust the election result to reduce gender imbalance. This will be done by allocating a maximum of twelve additional Parliamentary seats. However, this mechanism will only apply if Parliament is composed of members of parliament from only two political parties. In the event of the election of a third party, this adjustment mechanism to reduce gender imbalance will not apply.
This is discriminatory. It discriminates against small parties like ADPD that aspire to be in Parliament and which now have to face this additional hurdle.
This obstacle is in addition to another obstacle, the proportionality mechanism, also in the constitution. Through this mechanism there is an adjustment to the number of parliamentary seats when these do not correspond to the proportion of votes cast. Yet again the proportionality adjustment does not apply if parliament is composed of more than two political parties.
Together these two mechanisms consolidate a discriminatory barrier through which a two-party Parliament keeps out other parties.
There are several other solutions to make the parliament representative of the popular vote as well as to reduce the gender imbalance as much as possible.
ADPD over the years has made several proposals on this. The latest proposal was made in the context of the public consultation on proposals related to addressing gender imbalance. Our proposals have been ignored and we have no choice but to resort to court to remove discrimination from the electoral system.”
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Sistema elettorali ibbażata fuq id-diskriminazzjoni
Carmel Cacopardo, Chairperson ta’ ADPD, illum ħabbar il-bidu ta’ proċeduri kostituzzjonali dwar is-sistema elettorali.
“Illum tajna bidu għal proċeduri kostituzzjonali li permezz tagħhom qed nikkontesaw il-validità ta’ sistema elettorali ibbażata fuq id-diskriminazzjoni.
Matul il-ġimgħat li għaddew il-Parlament Malti iddiskuta u approva emendi kostituzzjonali li permezz tagħhom ser ikun possibli li jkun hemm aġġustament għar-riżultat elettorali ħalli jonqos l-iżbilanċ tal-ġeneru. Dan se ssir billi jkun hemm allokazzjoni ta’ massimu ta’ tnax-il siġġu Parlamentari addizzjonali. Dan iżda jista’ jseħħ biss jekk il-Parlament ikun kompost minn membri parlamentari ġejjin minn żewġ partiti politiċi. F’każ li jidħol it-tielet partit dan l-aġġustament biex ikun imnaqqas l-iżbilanċ tal-ġeneru ma jkunx jista’ jseħħ.
Dan hu diskriminatorju. Jiddiskrimina kontra partiti żgħar bħal ADPD li jaspiraw li jkunu fil-Parlament u li issa jridu jiffaċċjaw dan l-ostaklu ukoll.
Dan l-ostaklu hu żieda ma ostaklu ieħor mal-mekkaniżmu dwar il-proporzjonalità, ukoll fil-kostituzzjoni u li permezz tiegħu jkun hemm aġġustament fid-daqs tal-Parlament meta s-siġġijiet parlamentari mirbuħa mill-partiti politiċi ma jikkorrispondux mal-proporzjon tal-vot popolari li jkunu kisbu. Anke hawn l-aġġustament għall-proporzjonalità ma jaħdimx kemm-il darba l-parlament ikun kompost minn iktar minn żewġ partiti politiċi.
Flimkien, dawn iż-żewġ mekkaniżmi jikkonsolidaw barriera diskriminatorju li permezz tagħha Parlament magħmul minn żewġ partiti jrid iżomm barra partiti oħra.
Hemm diversi soluzzjonijiet oħra biex il-parlament ikun rappreżentattiv tal-vot popolari kif ukoll biex fih jonqos kemm jista’ jkun l-iżbilanċ tal-ġeneru.
ADPD tul is-snin għamel diversi proposti dwar dan. L-aħħar proposta saret fil-kuntest tal-konsultazzjoni pubblika dwar il-proposti konnessi mal-indirizz tal-iżbilanċ tal-ġeneru. Il-proposti tagħna ġew injorati u allura ma baqa’ l-ebda triq oħra ħlief li nirrikorru għall-Qorti biex titneħħa id-diskriminazzjoni mis-sistema elettorali.”
