The politics of Malta takes place within a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the president of Malta is the constitutional head of state. Executive authority is vested in the president of Malta, with the general direction and control of the Government of Malta remaining with the prime minister of Malta, who is the head of government and the cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Malta, which consists of the president of Malta and the unicameral House of Representatives of Malta with the speaker as the presiding officer of the legislative body. Judicial power remains with the chief justice and the judiciary of Malta. Since independence, the party electoral system has been dominated by the Christian democratic Nationalist Party and the social democratic Labour Party.
The Nationalist Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Labour Party.
Edoardo "Eddie" Fenech Adami, is a Maltese politician and Nationalist politician who served as the prime minister of Malta from 1987 until 1996, and again from 1998 until 2004. Subsequently, he was the seventh president of Malta from 2004 to 2009. He led his party to win four general elections, in 1987, 1992, 1998 and 2003, as well as the majority of votes in 1981. Staunchly pro-European, Fenech Adami was fundamental for Malta's accession to the European Union.
The Labour Party, formerly known as the Malta Labour Party, is one of the two major political parties in Malta, along with the Nationalist Party. It sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum.
Lawrence Gonzi, is a Maltese politician, retired Nationalist politician and lawyer, who served for twenty-five years in various critical roles in Maltese politics. Gonzi was Prime Minister of Malta from 2004 to 2013, and leader of the Nationalist Party. He also served as speaker of the House from 1988 to 1996, and Minister of Social Policy from 1998 to 2004, as well as Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 to 2004. He served in practically all positions in Parliament, being also Leader of the House, an MP and Leader of the Opposition.
Joseph Muscat is a Maltese politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Malta from 2013 to 2020 and leader of the Labour Party from 2008 to 2020.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Malta since 1 September 2017 following the passage of legislation in the Parliament on 12 July 2017. The bill was signed into law by President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca on 1 August 2017. On 25 August 2017, the Minister for Equality, Helena Dalli, issued a legal notice to commence the law on 1 September. Malta was the 21st country in the world and the thirteenth in Europe to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide.
George William Vella is a Maltese politician who has served as president of Malta since 2019. A member of the Labour Party, he previously served as deputy prime minister of Malta and foreign affairs minister from 1996 to 1998 under prime minister Alfred Sant. In 2013, he returned as foreign affairs minister, an office he held until 2017 under prime minister Joseph Muscat.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 8 and 20 April 2010, to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka's 14th Parliament. 14,088,500 Sri Lankans were eligible to vote in the election at 11,102 polling stations. It was the first general election to be held in Sri Lanka following the conclusion of the civil war which lasted 26 years.
Presidential elections were held in Moldova on 16 December 2011. The president was elected by the parliament in an indirect election. After the election on 16 December failed, a second attempt was made on 15 January 2012. However, that vote was annulled as being unconstitutional since it had not been held in a secret vote. On 16 March, parliament elected Nicolae Timofti as president by 62 votes out of 101, with the PCRM boycotting the election, putting an end to a political crisis that had lasted since April 2009.
Indirect presidential elections were held in Kosovo on 22 February 2011 and 7 April 2011.
A series of rounds in the Lebanese presidential election were held from 23 April 2014 until 31 October 2016. No candidate reached a two-thirds majority vote in the first round, and subsequent rounds failed to gain a quorum. Finally, in the second round of the forty-sixth session held on 31 October 2016, Michel Aoun, a Member of Parliament and formerly a disputed Prime Minister and Acting President in a rival government near the end of the Lebanese Civil War, was elected with 83 votes in Parliament. He took office the same day as the 13th President of Lebanon since independence in 1943.
An indirect election took place in Estonia in 2016 to elect the president of Estonia, who is the country's head of state. The Riigikogu — the Parliament of Estonia — elected Kersti Kaljulaid to be the next head of state of Estonia to succeed Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who had served his second and final term as president. Kaljulaid is the first female head of state of Estonia.
The Democratic Party was a centrist to centre-left political party in Malta. It was founded in 2016 after a split from the Labour Party. It elected Malta's first two third party MPs for the first time since the country's Independence. In August 2020 the party announced an agreement to merge with the green Democratic Alternative party to form a new party called AD+PD. The merger was conducted on 17 October 2020.
An indirect presidential election was held in Hungary on 13 March 2017. János Áder was elected President of Hungary for a second term.
General elections were held in Malta on 26 March 2022 to elect all members of the House of Representatives.
Since the independence of Bangladesh, the presidential election process has been changed several times due to both the presidential and parliamentary arrangements. According to the Second Schedule to the Constitution of 1972, the president of the parliament used to be elected by a secret vote. Later, according to the fourth amendment to the constitution, the provision of the direct election system of presidential election was introduced. But soon after 12th Amendment to the Constitution, the provision of presidential elections through an indirect election was introduced after the parliamentary system was installed. At present, the president is elected by an indirect election by the members of parliament as per Article 48 of the Constitution.
The United National Movement – United Opposition "Strength is in Unity" Faction is one of two factions in the Parliament of Georgia, working as a coalition of MPs from several political parties, led by the United National Movement and including Progress and Freedom and Victorious Georgia. It is the parliamentary wing of a previous political block first created during the 2018 presidential election to back the candidacy of Grigol Vashadze and then reformed in 2020 to run a joint slate of candidates for that year's parliamentary election. In Parliament, it is the largest grouping of the Parliamentary Opposition, including 20 MPs, and is currently chaired by UNM's Tinatin Bokuchava.
Presidential elections were held in North Macedonia in 2019. Three candidates were on the ballot in the first round, held on 21 April: Stevo Pendarovski, supported by the ruling coalition led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, including the Democratic Union for Integration; Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova of the leading opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, and Blerim Reka, an independent supported by Albanian opposition parties Alliance for Albanians and Besa Movement. The first round did not result in an absolute majority for any candidate, with Pendarovski receiving the most votes. In the second round held on 5 May, Pendarovski defeated Siljanovska-Davkova with 54% of the vote.
Parliamentary elections were held in the Comoros on 19 January 2020; in constituencies where no candidate received a majority, a second round was held alongside local elections on 23 February. The elections were boycotted by the main opposition parties, including the two largest parties in the outgoing Assembly, the Union for the Development of the Comoros and Juwa Party, in protest at constitutional reform and political repression, The result was a landslide victory for President Azali Assoumani's Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros, which won 20 of the 24 elected seats.
