| Country: | Malta |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | yes |
| Previous Election: | 2022 Maltese general election |
| Previous Year: | 2022 |
| Election Date: | By 2027 |
| Seats For Election: | 65+ seats in the House of Representatives |
| Majority Seats: | 33+ |
| Opinion Polls: |
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| Image1: | Robert Abela 2022.jpg |
| Leader1: | Robert Abela |
| Party1: | Labour Party (Malta) |
| Last Election1: | 55.11%, 44 seats |
| Seats Before1: | 43 seats |
| Leader2: | Bernard Grech |
| Party2: | Nationalist Party (Malta) |
| Last Election2: | 42.12%, 35 seats |
| Seats Before2: | 35 seats |
| Prime Minister | |
| Before Election: | Robert Abela |
| Before Party: | Labour Party (Malta) |
General elections will be held in Malta by 2027 to elect all members of the House of Representatives. The Labour Party, which had governed Malta since 2013, won a third term in the 2022 elections under Robert Abela. Shortly after the elections, Bernard Grech was re-elected unopposed for the leader of the Nationalist Party.
The previous election, which was held in March 2022, saw the Labour Party, which has governed the country since 2013, receive 55% of the popular vote and win 44 out of 79 seats in the House of Representatives.[1] Robert Abela, the Prime Minister of Malta and leader of the Labour Party since 2020, and his new cabinet were sworn in on 30 March 2022.[2] Bernard Grech, the leader of the Nationalist Party, was re-elected unopposed in May 2022.[3]
MPs are elected from 13 five-seat constituencies by single transferable vote.[4] 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.[5] 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. Despite conducting elections under a proportional ranked preferential system, Malta has a stable two-party system, with only the Labour Party and Nationalist Party having a realistic chance of forming a government.[6] [7] Prior to the 2017 election, when the Democratic Party won two seats while running in a joint list with the Nationalist Party, the last time a party other than the Labour Party or the Nationalist Party won seats was in 1962.[8] [9]
In 2018, the government of Malta lowered the national voting age to 16.[10] During the 2017–2022 legislature a gender-corrective mechanism was introduced, with Article 52(A) of the Constitution stating that provides 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.[11]
See also: List of political parties in Malta. The table below lists parties represented in the House of Representatives after the 2022 general election.
| Name | Ideology | Political position | Leader | 2022 result | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | ||||||
| Labour Party (PL) | Social democracy | Centre-left | Robert Abela | 55.11% | |||
| Nationalist Party (PN) | Christian democracy | Centre-right | Bernard Grech | 41.74% | |||
| Party | Seats | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour Party (PL) | 43 | |||||
| Nationalist Party (PN) | 35 | |||||
| Independent | 1 | |||||
See main article: Opinion polling for the next Maltese general election.