Maltese general election, 1981 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The 1981 general election was held to elect the House of Representatives of Malta

House of Representatives of Malta

The House of Representatives is the unicameral legislature of Malta and a component of the Parliament of Malta.The House is composed of an odd number of members elected for a five year term...

. The election resulted in controversy because although the Nationalist Party

Nationalist Party (Malta)

The Nationalist Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Labour Party. It was founded by Fortunato Mizzi in 1880 as the Anti-Reform Party, opposing taxation decreed by the British colonial authorities and measures to Anglicise the educational and the...

(Partit Nazzjonalista) gained 51.8% of the votes, the voting system in use led to Malta Labour Party

Malta Labour Party

The Labour Party is, along with the Nationalist Party, one of two major contemporary political parties in Malta. It is the party of opposition in the Maltese House of Representatives where it has thirty-four of the sixty-nine seats.- Party Structure :...

(Partit Laburista) winning the majority of seats and governing the Maltese islands with a disputed mandate, until the general election of 1987. This provoked a constitutional crisis

Constitutional crisis

A constitutional crisis is a situation that the legal system's constitution or other basic principles of operation appear unable to resolve; it often results in a breakdown in the orderly operation of government...

, with the Nationalist Party boycotting parliament. As a result a compromise was reached whereby changes were made to the voting system to prevent a recurrence of the same problem.

The voting system

The 1981 election was held under the single transferable vote

Single transferable vote

The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...

(PR-STV) system, with five-seat constituencies. PR-STV is designed to achieve proportional representation

Proportional representation

Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

but, it does not produce perfect proportionality, especially if a small constituency size (district magnitude) is used or there are distortions caused by differential turn-out, gerrymandering

Gerrymandering

In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts...

or malapportionment. As a consequence, on rare occasions it is possible for a party to receive more than 50% of the vote in a parliamentary election but to fall short of a majority of seats.

Under the agreement reached following the 1981 election additional 'bonus' seats were introduced. Under the new system if a repeat of the 1981 scenario occurs then the party supported by an overall majority of voters will be awarded a number of additional seats from a party list, so that it secures a parliamentary majority.

Results

Summary of the December 12, 1981 House of Representatives of Malta

House of Representatives of Malta

The House of Representatives is the unicameral legislature of Malta and a component of the Parliament of Malta.The House is composed of an odd number of members elected for a five year term...

Malta Labour Party

Nationalist Party (Malta)

(Partit Nazzjonalista)
|align="right" | 114,113
|align="right" |50.9
|align="right" |31
|-
|align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total (turnout 94.1 %)
|width="75" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|224,151
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.0
|width="30" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|65
|-
|align=left colspan=10|Source: http://www.maltadata.com/.
|}

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.