House of Representatives (Malta)

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A total of 67 seats
  • PL : 36
  • Otherwise: 3
  • PN : 28
New construction of the parliament building in Valletta (2015)

The House of Representatives (Maltese: Kamra Tad-Deputati , English: House of Representatives ) is the parliament of the Republic of Malta .

composition

The Republic of Malta has a unicameral parliament in accordance with Chapter VI of its Constitution . The House of Representatives consists of 65 members. Bonus mandates can increase the number to 69 members.

For the current composition see: List of MEPs of Malta (13th legislative term) .

Suffrage

The election for the House of Representatives takes place in 13 electoral districts , in each of which 5 mandates are awarded.

The election in the respective electoral districts takes place according to the proportional representation according to the procedure of the transferable individual voting . After the conservative PN obtained an absolute majority of votes, but not a majority of the seats in the 1981 elections , a crisis ensued in which the PN MPs refused to accept their seats because they were intentionally manipulating the ruling Malta Labor Party Accused electoral district boundaries. The constitutional crisis was finally brought to an end with the introduction of a bonus rule that was first used in the 1987 elections: if a party wins the majority of the votes but not the majority of the seats nationwide, it receives four additional seats in order to obtain a governable parliamentary majority guarantee. The possibility of this bonus rule does not apply if a third party moves into the House of Representatives, but this practically never happens due to the two-party system.

The right to vote will receive Maltese with the completion of 16 years, the passive voting rights from 18 years. Only citizens who were resident in the country for at least six months in the twelve months prior to the election may participate in the election to the House of Representatives; the possibility of postal voting for Maltese citizens living abroad is not provided. This is justified by the fact that more Maltese live abroad than in Malta itself, so there is a risk that the votes of the citizens living abroad are decisive for the formation of a government.

Speaker of the House

The Speakers of the House were:

building

Grand Masters Palace, Parliament Building until 2015

Until 2015, the House of Representatives met in the Grand Masters Palace in the capital Valletta . Since 2015, the Parliament is in session in the new building of the parliament building on the adjacent Freedom Square , near the southern city gate of Valletta. The new building was built between 2011 and 2015 according to designs by the Italian architect Renzo Piano as part of the city ​​gate project .

elections

1996

In the parliamentary elections in 1996, the Malta Labor Party won . Prime Minister was Alfred Sant .

See also: List of MEPs from Malta (8th legislative term)

1998

The Nationalist Party won the early parliamentary elections on September 5, 1998 . Edward Fenech Adami was again prime minister. Linked to this was Malta's renewed turn to the EU . A referendum on March 8, 2003 resulted in a majority (53.6%) in favor of Maltese joining the EU on May 1, 2004.

See also: List of MEPs from Malta (9th legislative term)

2003

The parliamentary elections for the 10th electoral term took place on April 12, 2003. Following the trend from the EU referendum, the Maltese voted for the conservative Partit Nazzjonalista (PN) with 51.79 percent and the socialist Malta Labor Party (MLP) with 47.51 percent . The third party, the green-alternative Alternattiva Demokratieika (AD) did not get a seat in parliament with 0.68 percent of the vote. The government of Prime Minister Edward Fenech Adami was confirmed. After Edward Fenech Adami resigned as Prime Minister in March 2004 to run for President of Malta, Lawrence Gonzi was sworn in as the new Prime Minister on March 23, 2004.

See also: List of MEPs from Malta (10th legislative term)

2008

For the election on March 8, 2008, see Parliamentary Elections in Malta 2008 .

2013

The parliamentary election for the 12th electoral term took place on March 9, 2013; Prime Minister Gonzi had previously dissolved parliament after the failure to pass the budget on December 10, 2012.

2017

In the early parliamentary elections for the 13th electoral term, which took place on June 3, 2017, the Partit Laburista was able to maintain its majority, Joseph Muscat became Prime Minister as in 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/85054/vote_16_unanimously_approved#.XUnGaOgzZPY Maltese parliament extends voting suffrage to 16-year-olds
  2. ↑ Malta Direct: Right to vote for Maltese working abroad? ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.malta-direkt.de
  3. ↑ Malta is holding early elections. Handelsblatt dated December 11, 2012
  4. ↑ Announcement of the 2013 election date on Parliament's homepage