Malta constitution

Costituzione di Malta

The Constitution has been amended twenty-four times, most recently in 2007 with the entrenchment of the office of the Ombudsman. The constitution is typically called the Constitution of Malta and replaced the 1961 Constitution, dating from 24 October 1961. George Borg Olivier was its main instigator and negotiator.

Under its 1964 constitution, Malta became a parliamentary democracy within the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II was sovereign of Malta, and a Governor-General exercised executive authority on her behalf, while the actual direction and control of the government and the nation's affairs were in the hands of the cabinet under the leadership of a Maltese Prime Minister, the leader of the party that wins a majority of parliamentary seats in a general election for the unicameral House of Representatives.

On 13 December 1974, under the Labour government Dom Mintoff, the constitution was revised, and Malta became a republic within the Commonwealth, with executive authority vested in a Maltese President, who is appointed by Parliament and who in turn, appoints as Prime Minister.

The President also nominally appoints, upon recommendation of the Prime Minister, the individual ministers to head each of the government departments. The cabinet is selected from among the members of the House of Representatives. The Constitution provides for general elections to be held at least every five years. Candidates are elected by the Single Transferable Vote system. The entire territory is divided into thirteen electoral districts each returning five MPs to a total of 65. Since 1987, in case a Party obtains an absolute majority of votes without achieving a Parliamentary majority a mechanism in the Constitution provides for additional seats to that Party to achieve a Parliamentary majority (Act IV of 1987). To date this mechanism, intended to counteract gerrymandering, came into effect twice: for the Sixth and the Eighth Parliaments. A similar mechanism was introduced in 1996 so that additional seats would be given to that Party obtaining a relative majority of votes but not a parliamentary majority with only two parties achieving Parliamentary representation. This mechanism was first applied in the 2008 general election.