Maltese Parliament

Parliament of Malta Parlament ta' Malta
Type
Type	Unicameral
Houses	House of Representatives
Leadership
Speaker of the House	Michael Frendo since 29 April 2010
Structure
Seats	69
Political groups	PN (35) PL (34)
Elections
Last election	8 March 2008
Meeting place
Grandmaster's Palace, Valletta
Website
http://www.parlament.mt/

The Parliament of the Republic of Malta (commonly referred to as the Parliament of Malta) is the constitutional legislative body in Malta, located in Valletta. Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy however falls within the confines of a more supreme Constitution of Malta. The parliament is unicameral, with a democratically elected House of Representatives and the President of Malta. By Constitutional law, all government ministers, including the Prime Minister, must be members of the House of Representatives.

House of Representatives of Malta

The House of Representatives (rendered as Kamra tad-Deputati in Maltese) is the unicameral legislature of Malta and a component of the Parliament of Malta. The House is presided over by the Speaker of the House. The President of Malta is appointed for a five year term by a resolution of the House.

Composition

The House is composed of an odd number of members (currently has 69) elected for one legislative term. Ordinarily, five members are returned from each of thirteen electoral districts through single transferable vote but additional members are elected in cases of disproportionality (e.g. where party with an absolute majority of votes fails an absolute majority of seats and where only candidates from two parties are elected) to ensure strict proportionality.

Meeting Place

The House is currently housed in the Grandmaster's Palace in Valletta.

In 2010, works commenced to build a new Parliamentary building. The government's original proposal had been to build Parliament on the site of the former opera house site in Valletta. This was shelved after the footprint was deemed too small and instead the new Parliament building will be built in Freedom Square. The building will be built to designs of Renzo Piano and is expected to be completed by the end of the current Parliamentary term, that is not later than 2013.

Committees

The Standing Orders of the House provide for the creation of six Parliamentary Standing Committees to make parliamentary work more efficient and enhance Parliament's scrutiny functions. The Standing Committees are:

• Standing Committee on House Business
• Standing Committee on Privileges
• Standing Committee on Public Accounts
• Standing Committee on Foreign and European Affairs
• Standing Committee on Social Affairs
• Standing Committee on Consideration of Bills

There are also select committees and non-official committees.

Latest elections

Main article: Maltese general election, 2008

External links

• Maltese parliament website