Opposition asked to nominate two members to 'democracy committee'

The government has asked Opposition leader Adrian Delia to nominate two individuals to sit on the Technical Committee for the Advancement of Representative Democracy. 

The committee was established in June last year and was criticised by the Opposition, which said it had only found out about it through a notice in government gazette.

The PN had said that the committee’s members were all close to the government and the Labour Party, and was not representative of Malta’s political landscape.

The technical committee was described as an internal government committee which would be exploring legal and technical aspects on improving female participation in Malta’s democracy.

In a statement on Tuesday, Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms Julia Farrugia Portelli said she had written to Delia for him to nominate two representatives in order to examine and analyse proposals on increasing female participation in parliament that were submitted in a public consultation which ended in June.

“Now that the preliminary technical work has been prepared, and after all submissions, including those made by political parties have been considered, the government, in a letter to Opposition Leader Adrian Delia, has requested that he nominate two representatives.”

The consultation was launched back in March and sought feedback from NGOs and the general public on a document on the proposed reform prepared by the committee.

“It is clear from the feedback received that there is consensus among stakeholders on the need to introduce positive measures for equal representation in parliament,” read the statement.

Farrugia Portelli expressed her satisfaction at the fact that over 30 organisations had participated in the consultation exercise, in addition to a number of private individuals who also chose to give their feedback.

She said government was now looking forward to finding consensus with the Opposition on the way forward.