A recently launched website allows Maltese voters to see, for the first time, where their vote actually landed, “shedding some light on how awesome our electoral system really is.”

With an election called for later this month, understanding how Malta’s voting system actually works is being presented by the makers of VOT.mt as not only a right, but also a duty.

“We have one of the most representative voting systems in the world, and yet a lot of people don't actually use it to its full potential,” says Alex Portelli, one of the masterminds behind the new tool.

VOT

VOT invites users to fill in a mock vote, then uses data about the last four general elections pulled from the Electoral Commission to create a simulation of how the actual vote was processed, count by count.

Malta’s electoral system allows voters to select their preferred candidates among those contesting their district, starting from the number ‘1’ for their top choice and proceeding with ‘2’, ‘3’ and so on.

Voters can select as many or as few candidates as they want.

In practice, the overwhelming majority of voters choose to ‘block vote’, numbering their chosen party’s candidates in line with their personal preference but leaving the boxes next to those of other parties empty.

Andrea Delicata, another of the trio who developed Vot.mt, says that although he’s always voted, “I never actually understood how it works.”

The major parties have always discouraged ‘cross voting’ – that is, voting across party lines – leading to the commonly held but mistaken assumption that doing so would invalidate your vote.

“The more I learned about the Maltese voting system and the power of every single vote, the more invested I became in his mission to make this knowledge public,” says Mr Delicata.

While Mr Portelli brought his skill as a web developer and Mr Delicata his design know-how, expertise on the voting system was brought by David Grech, a financial advisor with an abiding interest in Malta’s electoral system.

Mr Grech tells WhosWho.mt that Malta’s system is “in its essence, a very democratic system when compared to other systems like ‘first past the post’ used in the UK for example.”

The ability to vote for persons from different parties means that even a die-hard party supporter who gives all their initial preference votes to their party can then go on to vote for people from other parties.

This, Mr Grech explains, “gives me as a voter the chance to vote for individual candidates who I deem worthy of representing me, even if they run for other parties ... making STV one of the few systems that allows for such wide range of 'power' through one ballot sheet.”

L-R: Alex Portelli, Andrea Delicata, David Grech

“David’s clear explanation of complex mechanisms behind Malta’s voting system,” says Mr Portelli, “taught me a lot about how we choose the people who run our country.”

The launch of the new tool comes amid changes in the traditional two-party system characterised by voter turnouts over 90 per cent.

While the entry of a third party in Parliament, going by recent opinion polls, remains a rather remote possibility, the cohort of non-voters continues to grow. In the 2022 general election, it stood at 86 per cent – a record low.

With many non-voters citing their disillusionment with the two main political parties and increasing visibility for third party candidates like Arnold Cassola – who obtained the third-largest number of votes in the 2024 MEP elections, trailing only the two star candidates of the major parties – understanding how cross-voting works is arguably more relevant than ever.

VOT

Opening up on development of VOT, Mr Portelli says the new capabilities of AI played a major role.

“Five years ago, an idea like VOT would have remained just that – an idea,” he says. “At most, I would have given it a burst of energy for two weeks, then burned out and put it on the shelf with all the other unfinished projects.”

However, the rapid increase the utility of AI has opened up new opportunities: “Instead of seeing AI as a threat to my livelihood, I see it as a superpower that has amplified my skillset and allowed me to ship more than ever before.

“My years of experience in frontend engineering still carry all the value. I’m just no longer the bottleneck at the keyboard.”

Visit VOT and see how your vote in motion here.