This development in Malta is reported by Victor Paul Borg in Constitutionnet:
In January 2021, the Maltese Parliament approved on second reading reforms to the constitution as well as the law on elections that seek to enhance women’s representation in parliament and the Electoral Commission. The proposed reforms have received cross-party support and are set to be approved with the required two-thirds majority in the next stages. It is, however, not clear whether the cross-party support emanates from genuine commitment for the chosen modality of ensuring gender equality, rather than a strategy to avoid blame for blocking these modest proposals.
The proposed constitutional changes before parliament are driven by a stark statistic: only nine of Malta’s current 67 members of parliament (MPs) are women, putting the country the second from lowest, after Hungary, for proportion of women MPs in Europe. This is reflected in the female employment rate of just 63 percent, which is among the bottom five in the European Union.
…[However, in the] context of a weak parliamentary system, there is concern that the addition of 12 women MPs after the next election in 2022 may merely exacerbate the problems associated with nepotism and overfamiliarity.
Read the full story here.
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