General elections were held in

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

on 12 December 1981.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1302 The opposition Nationalist Party, reinvigorated with a new leader

Eddie Fenech Adami Edoardo "Eddie" Fenech Adami (born 7 February 1934) is a Malta, Maltese and Nationalist Party (Malta), Nationalist politician who served as the prime minister of Malta from 1987 until 1996, and again from 1998 until 2004. Subsequently, he was t ...

, looked set for a serious challenge to the Labour Party, which had been in power since 1971 under Prime Minister

Dom Mintoff Dominic Mintoff ( ; often called ''il-Perit'', "the Architect"; 6 August 1916 – 20 August 2012) was a Maltese socialist politician, architect, and civil engineer who was leader of the Labour Party (Malta), Labour Party from 1949 to 1984 ...

. However, the elections resulted in controversy because although the Nationalist Party received a majority of votes, the disproportionality of the

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

allowed the Maltese Labour Party to win a majority of seats. Mintoff said he would not be ready to govern in such conditions and hinted that he would call for fresh elections within six months. However, he eventually accepted the President's invitation to form a government and continued in office. This provoked a

constitutional crisis In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the constitution, political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variat ...

, with the Nationalist Party boycotting parliament. The aftermath of the political crisis continued throughout the 1980s, with an increase in

political violence Political violence is violence which is perpetrated in order to achieve political goals. It can include violence which is used by a State (polity), state against other states (war), violence which is used by a state against civilians and non-st ...

in the streets. Following the elections changes were made to the voting system to prevent a recurrence of the same problem. Under the new system, if a repeat of the 1981 scenario occurred, the party supported by an overall majority of voters would be awarded a sufficient number of additional seats from a party list to give it a majority.Malta: STV With Some Twists
ACE

Electoral system

The elections were held using the

system, with five-seat constituencies.

Results

References

{{Maltese elections General elections in Malta

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...