Politics of Malta - Legislative Branch

Legislative Branch

Elections to the House of Representatives (Kamra tad-Deputati) are based on the single transferable vote system, which in turn is a variant of the proportional representation electoral system. First vacancies are filled through casual election and subsequent vacancies through co-option, meaning that no by-elections are held between one general election and the other. The Parliamentary term cannot exceed five years.

Ordinarily, 65 members are elected to the House from 13 multi-seat constituencies each returning 5 MPs. Additional MPs are elected in two circumstances:

• when a party achieves 50%+1 of first-preference valid votes in the election but does not secure a Parliamentary majority it is awarded enough seats (filled by the best runner-up candidates) to make a Parliamentary majority
• when in an election contested by more than two parties only two parties are elected to Parliament and the relative Parliamentary strength is not proportionate to the first preference votes obtained, additional seats are allocated to establish proportionality

A third electoral amendment has been enacted which guarantees strict-proportionality with respect to votes and seats to parliamentary political groups.