The Parliament of Malta () is the constitutional legislative body in

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

, located in

Valletta Valletta ( ; , ) is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 Local councils of Malta, council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta’s capital ...

. The

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

, with a democratically elected House of Representatives and the

president of Malta The president of Malta () is the constitutional head of state of Malta. The president is indirect election, indirectly elected by the House of Representatives of Malta, which appoints the president for a five-year term and requires them to sw ...

. By constitutional law, all government ministers, including the

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, must be members of the House of Representatives. Between 1921 and 1933 the Parliament was

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate Deliberative assembly, assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate ...

, consisting of a

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

''(Senat)'' as well as a Legislative Assembly ''(Assemblea Leġiżlattiva)''.

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 presided over by the Speaker of the House. The

President of Malta The president of Malta () is the constitutional head of state of Malta. The president is indirect election, indirectly elected by the House of Representatives of Malta, which appoints the president for a five-year term and requires them to sw ...

is appointed for a five-year term by a resolution of the House.

Composition

The House is composed of an odd number of members elected for one legislative term of five years. Five members are returned from each of thirteen electoral districts using the

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

electoral system, but additional members are elected in cases of dis-proportionality. Since 2022, 12 extra seats are provided to female candidates, as long as they fail to make up 40% of the elected members, leading to a total of 79 MPs after the 2022 election.

Electoral system

MPs are elected from 13 five-seat constituencies by

. Candidates who pass the Hagenbach-Bischoff quota in the first round are elected, and any surplus votes transferred to the remaining candidates, who will be elected if this enables them to pass the quota. The lowest ranked candidates are then eliminated one-by-one with their preferences transferred to other candidates, who are elected as they pass the quotient, until all five seats are filled. If a party wins a majority of first preference votes but fails to achieve a parliamentary majority, they are awarded seats to ensure a one-seat majority, if they are one of only two parties to obtain seats. While the ranked preferential system used is technically proportional, the low number of seats per constituency (five) means that parties can only receive seats if they reach at least 16.7% of votes, so smaller parties are excluded from representation. Consequently, Malta has a stable

two-party system A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...

, with only the Labour Party and Nationalist Party having a realistic chance of forming a government. In 2018, the national voting age was lowered to 16. In 2021, a gender-corrective mechanism was introduced, with the new Article 52(A) of the Constitution providing for up to 12 additional seats for unelected candidates from "the under-represented sex" in case one of both makes up less than 40% of the elected MPs. As women have never made up more than ~15% of the elected candidates prior to this mechanism, this effectively leads to 12 extra women (6 from each party) in parliament.

Meeting place

Between 1921 and 2015, the House of Representatives was housed in the Grandmaster's Palace in

. Since 4 May 2015 the House of Representatives has met in the Parliament House, near the city gate of Valletta.

Committees

The Standing Orders of the House provide for the creation of eight Parliamentary Standing Committees to make parliamentary work more efficient and enhance Parliament's scrutiny functions. The Standing Committees are: *Standing Committee on House Business *Standing Committee on Privileges *Standing Committee on Public Accounts *Standing Committee on Foreign and European Affairs *Standing Committee on Social Affairs *Standing Committee on Consideration of Bills *Standing Committee on Family Affairs *Standing Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs Other Standing Committees constituted by other statutes include: *Standing Committee on Environment and Development Planning *National Audit Office Accounts Committee *Standing Committee for Public Appointments *Committee for Standards in Public Life There are also select committees and non-official committees.

Latest elections

Members

* List of members of the parliament of Malta, 2008–13 * List of members of the parliament of Malta, 2013–17 * List of members of the parliament of Malta, 2017–22 * List of members of the parliament of Malta, 2022–27

References

External links

* {{authority control

Government of Malta

Politics of Malta 1921 establishments in Malta