Mintoff's majority
Sir: Whatever one may think of Dom Mintoff's policies, it is grossly unfair to imply, as some newspapers have done, that he is a pocket dictator.' Mintoff leads a democratically elected group of Labour MPs with a majority of just one over the Nationalists in Malta's Legislative Assembly, in which there is no third party represented. How is it that Malta's Premier dares to rule so strongly on such a tiny majority? One reason is that this majority was won fairly, owing to the proportional representation system of voting used in Malta since 1921, which also gave Mintoff a dramatic personal boost in 1971 by seeing him elected top of the poll in two of the island's eight multi-member constituencies — in both cases by a handsome majority. The Maltese people do not object to strong government, for they know that they can topple the Labour administration, or Mintoff personally, at the next election, should they want to.
In Britain we have no such luck; a simple majority election can result in anything from hugely exaggerated landslides to governments elected on a minority vote, while X-voting gives the voter no chance to single out a candidate for any reason other than his party label.
Martin Wainwright The Heath, Adel, Leeds
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