Jon Mallia Podcast

Podbit · Jon Mallia Podcast

IS-SISTEMA ELETTORALI #1

Explore episode May 27, 2026
Government
Why Nobody Understands STV — And Why That Suits Politicians

IS-SISTEMA ELETTORALI #1 · May 27, 2026 Government

The name 'Single Transferable Vote' is borrowed from academic terminology, and most Maltese citizens have no idea how it works. David Grech argues this is not accidental: parties benefit from a voter base that doesn't understand transfers, quotas, or how their lower preferences flow. An informed electorate would vote strategically; an uninformed one votes emotionally.

2m 30s

Where this was said

Voter Turnout, Eligible Population and What the Percentages Hide

At 25:50 · chapter starts 23:20

David Grech reframes the entire discussion by introducing the voting-eligible population as the correct denominator for evaluating democratic mandates. He notes that Boris Johnson's celebrated 2019 majority was built on just 29.3% of UK eligible voters, and that even Barack Obama — arguably the most popular US president of recent decades — won with roughly 29% of the eligible population. The implication is clear: headline percentages of votes cast are misleading because they ignore abstentions. He then applies the same lens to Malta: Labour's 55.1% of votes cast sounds like a commanding majority, but once you account for non-voters it represents a smaller share of Maltese society than the number suggests. Jon and David also discuss Luxembourg and Belgium, where compulsory voting inflates turnout figures but roughly 60% of compelled voters in Luxembourg still submit blank or spoilt ballots — revealing the limits of mandatory participation as a solution to disengagement.

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