Sydalene legislative election, August 2018

Sydalene legislative election, 2018

7 August 2018 (2018-08-07)
256 seats in the National Assembly 129 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	71.2%
First party Second party Third party   File:Pelae Arvad.jpg Leader Pelae Arvad Elisabetta de Calvacamp The Lady Haddad de Saabi Party People's Party Franġiskani Modern Left Leader since 8 March 2016 4 May 2016 19 July 2015 Leader's seat Standing for Kerkouane Sydalon Peer Last election new party new party new party Seats before 71 25 57 Seats won 69 64 55 Seat change 2 39 2 Popular vote 1,414,094 1,323,725 1,212,642 Percentage 22.13% 20.7% 18.9%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   JK File:Elissa Ireyz.jpg Leader Michael Antuniez The Lord Sakarbal Elissa Ireyz Party Democratic Alternative Catholic Justice Patriots Movement Leader since 29 January 2017 18 April 2016 15 February 2018 Leader's seat Elected to Ostracine-1 Peer Hayan Last election 0 new party 4, 2.0% Seats before 16 26 11 Seats won 20 11 8 Seat change 4 15 3 Popular vote 969,558 588,102 314,654 Percentage 4.3% 2.6% 1.4% Swing 4.3% 0.3% 0.6%
Chancellor before election Fernande Mifsud Independent Chancellor Fernande Mifsud Independent

The Sydalene legislative election, 2018 was be held on 7 August 2018. Elections were held to elect all 256 members of the National Assembly, featuring 115 seats from single-member districts and 141 seats based on party-list proportional representation. The election will took place concurrently with the Chamber of Peers election, and regional elections in Ostracine, Tarrasell, Tanas and Toron, and local elections.

The centre-right coalition, led by the People's Party earned a plurality of seats, while Franġiskani earned the second most seats, and most votes among the party-list voting. The centre-left coalition, led by Adeodata Saabi and the Modern Left, came third. No party or coalition achieved an outright majority, resulting in a hung parliament.

Three weeks of negotiations between numerous parties from all political spectrums eventually resulted in the People's Party forming a minority government with Fernande Mifsud returning as Chancellor. Franġiskani agreed to support with government in the confidence-and-supply agreement.

Background

Originally, the 2018 legislative election was scheduled for 5 June 2018, but was postponed by royal decree on May 19, which was approved by a vote of both houses of the Senate the same day. The election date of August 7 was announced by Queen Melisende III on May 22 with the campaign opening the day after the announcement.

Plans for constitutional reform were announced before the election date, in May 2018, though the Queen's Household and the interim Chancellor Fernande Mifsud would postpone any reforms until elections were held. However, Queen Melisende announced reform to election to the Chamber of Peers before the election date. Unlike previous elections, the office of First Minister will remain vacant, and the office of Chancellor will assume head of government duties. The Royal Household announced the Ostracine Convention in June, which dictated that the Queen would appoint the person most likely to command the confidence of the Senate as Chancellor. This differs from the office of First Secretary, which was appointed solely at the Monarch's discretion.

Electoral system

The election features 115 constituencies that are elected by single-member districts under a first past the post system. Another 141 members are elected by party-list proportional representation. All members elected by list to be elected in multi-member constituencies based on domain borders. The party earning a majority of seats will be asked to form a government by the Queen. If no party earns a majority, parties may be required to form a minority government or coalition government. Many expect the National Assembly election to result in no party earning a majority. All 115 single member constituencies were re-drawn ahead of the election.

Elections to the Chamber of Peers will occur simultaneously among those eligible to stand for election to the Chamber of Peers.

Voting eligibility

To be eligible to vote in the legislative election, one must be:

• registered to vote with the Royal Registry;
• aged 20 years old by the registration deadline of 6 July 2018;
• a Sydalene citizen; and
• not excluded from voting (whether by legal incompetency, found guilty of or convicted of a felony, a believer of a nationally recognized religion) or not disqualified from voting (sitting in the Chamber of Peers).

Timetable

19 May	Queen Melisende III announced postponement of 2018 legislative election by royal decree; measure approved by the Senate
22 May	Election date announced for 7 August 2018
23 May	Commencement of official campaign period
6 July	Last day to register to vote
7 August	Voting day: national polls open at 8 am with polls closing at 9 pm, all voters queued outside of their proper voting station by 9 pm may still cast their vote. Vote counting to begin at 10 pm
14 August	National Assembly is sworn in and re-assembled

Coalitions and parties

There are sixteen registered political parties running candidates in the 2018 election, and 51 independent candidates that are not member of a party. Nine political parties are contesting in elections for the first time, following the dissolution, merger and split of previous parties. Two possible coalitions formed before the election date: the Centre-right coalition that includes the People's Party, Catholic Justice, and the Traditional Party; and the Centre-left coalition that includes Modern Left, Liberal Alliance, Progress, and the Green and Agrarian Party.

Coalition		Party		Main ideology	Leader	Chancellor candidate
	Centre-right		People's Party	Traditional conservatism	Pelae Arvad	Fernande Mifsud
			Catholic Justice	Catholic democracy	Adeodatus Sakarbal
			Traditional Party	Conservatism	Anna Ciriacu
	New Democracy			Radical centrism	Karim Azzopardi
	Centre-left		Modern Left	Liberalism	Adeodata Saabi	Adeodata Saabi
			Progress	Progressivism	Abi Dirri
			Liberal Alliance of Christians	Catholic democracy	Enriqu Aztarta
			Greens and Agrarians	Green politics	Filipe Meilak
	Franciscan Party of the Third Order			Democratic socialism	Elisabetta de Calvacamp
	Democratic Alternative			Populism	Michael Antuniez
	Patriots Movement			Neo-fascism	Elissa Muttuna
	Republican Party			Republicanism	Artus Bodmelqart
	New Order			Chauvinism	Redent Astarte	None a
	Vanguard of the People			Vanguard Communalism	Collective leadership
	North Scipian Union Party			Liberal Conservatism	Vinċenz Quattromani
	Jewish Voice			Big tent	Asher Cerff

^a Running candidates in less than 20 single-member constituencies

Results

← Summary of the 7 August 2018 National Assembly election results

File:Sydalon popular assembly political groups.svg
Coalition		Party		Proportional			First-past-the-post			Total seats	±
				Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Centre-right coalition		People's Party (PP)	1,355,075	19.8%	31	1,523,113	22.2%	38	69	–1
			Catholic Justice (JK)	472,656	6.9%	11	439,010	6.4%	0	11	–15
			Traditional Party (T)	202,093	2.9%	0	87,310	1.3%	0	0	–9
		Total seats				42			38	80	–26
	Franġiskani (F3O)			1,569,991	22.9%	36	1,338,310	19.5%	28	64	+39
	Centre-left coalition		Modern Left (XM)	1,125,936	16.4%	26	1,409,348	20.6%	29	55	–2
			Liberal Alliance of Christians (LAC)	232,210	3.4%	5	412,319	6.0%	3	8	+4
			Progress (P)	92,092	1.3%	0	98,313	1.4%	0	0	–3
		Total seats				31			32	63	–1
	Alternative Democracy (AD)			502,521	7.3%	11	591,213	8.6%	13	24	+4
	Patriot's Movement (PM)			379,553	5.5%	8	162,314	2.4%	0	8	–2
	New Democracy (DG)			301,231	4.4%	7	102,414	1.5%	0	7	+7
	Republican Party (PR)			281,139	4.1%	6	109,121	1.6%	0	6	+3
Total										256	–

See also

• Sydalene Peers election, 2018