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Did votes for women candidates get transferred to other women candidates?
Some quick math reveals that a good chunk of voters who chose women candidates, also went on to vote for other women candidates... but with little cross-party voting.
27 May 2014, 10:13pm
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
1 min read
Roberta Metsola and Miriam Dalli congratulate each other at the Naxxar counting hall. Photo: Ray Attard
Perhaps an interesting trend was observed during the vote transfers of the first female candidates to be eliminated.
In the case of Fleur Vella (PL), Helga Ellul (PN) and Deborah Schembri (PL) – eliminated at the sixth, fourteenth, and nineteenth counts respectively – there was an average 66% transfer of their votes to female candidates.
This means that two-thirds of their votes were passed to women candidates, even though this was concentrated in the main within their own party.
Helga Ellul’s votes had higher cross-party voting – of the 2,068 votes transferred to women candidates (67% of her total transfers), 94 went to candidates of the opposing party.
Miriam Dalli, elected on the 23rd count, had a lower surplus of 1,554 votes above the 35,959 quota, and less women candidates to give her votes to. But 45% of these, 700, went to a woman candidate: Marlene Mizzi (PL).
| Arlette Baldacchino (IE) | Fleur Vella (PL) | Helga Ellul (PN) | Deborah Schembri (PL) | Miriam Dalli (PL) (E) | |
| Count 5 | Count 6 | Count 14 | Count 19 | Count 24 | |
| Miriam Dalli | 9 | 58 | 43 | 2394 | - |
| Marlene Mizzi | 2 | 53 | 29 | 2981 | 701 |
| Deborah Schembri | 4 | 280 | 22 | - | - |
| Fleur Vella | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| Therese Commodini Cachia | 3 | 3 | 466 | 26 | 1 |
| Helga Ellul | 3 | 1 | - | - | - |
| Roberta Metsola | 3 | 2 | 1508 | E | E |
| TOTAL women transfers | 25 | 397 | 2068 | 5401 | 702 |
| TOTAL TRANSFERRED | 493 | 600 | 3067 | 8314 | 1554 |
| % women transfers | 5.07% | 66.17% | 67.43% | 64.96% | 45.17% |
| Non-transferables | 21 | 15 | 115 | 166 | 67 |
| TOTAL without NTS | 472 | 585 | 2952 | 8148 | 1487 |
| % women transfers | 5.30% | 67.86% | 70.05% | 66.29% | 47.21% |
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
