A case for Malta adopting a blockchain-based voting system

Abstract

Since the enactment of the first Maltese Constitution in 1921, when Malta was granted its own self-government, Malta commenced the practice of the principle of universal suffrage, meaning the right to vote, backed by the “one person, one vote principle”. Article 56 of the Constitution of Malta establishes the fundamental principle of proportional representation by means of the Single transferable vote, which is the voting system that elects the Members forming the House of Representatives. Such elections shall be free from any illegal, corrupt practices or foreign interference. Such voting shall be held by ballot-based voting system, anonymous and no one shall be permitted to vote on behalf of another person. This voting system is also adopted in the European Parliament Elections1 and in the Election that elects the sixty-eight Local Councils around Malta and Gozo every five years, according to the Local Government Act. The first democratic election in Malta took place in 1921, having introduced for the first time the “Single Transferable Vote” in Malta, an electoral system being influenced by the British, following their long reign over the Maltese Islands. An electoral system, defined by Schiavone (Schiavone, 2013, p. 1251) as one of the fairest methods to translate the wishes of the voters in an election, into parliamentary seats. The Single Transferable Vote (STV) offers various notable advantages, namely that with this voting system, exists a greater link between the candidate and the electorate, since voters can identify a representative that they helped to be elected and preferred, meaning that there is a higher element of direct democratic process, when compared to other voting systems, whilst fewer votes are lost in the process. Moreover, political parties within the STV system have the extra incentive of promoting a list of high-level candidates, aiming to increase a higher number of first preferences votes obtained by the team of candidates. However, the Single Transferable Voting system, brings also some disadvantages to the electoral system, namely the fact that the process of the counting of votes is quite lengthy. Since the 2019 European Parliament and Local Council elections, Malta for the first time, has introduced an electronic system for the counting process, aiming to expedite and speed up the process of vote counting. Elections are crucial in our democracy and serves as a legitimate instrument in which the citizens of a country are asked to cast their vote for their preferred candidates, eventually forming the Government that they prefer to govern the country in the next political legislature. Legitimacy and accuracy are two fundamental components to be observed in the process of an election, as they are the fundamental democratic mechanism aimed at choosing people’s representatives and governments. Along the years, the voting system around the World has evolved considerably, adopting newer methods and technologies, aiming to replace the traditional paper-ballot voting systems. This has seen the introduction of electronic voting in various modern democracies around the World, posing their advantages and disadvantages on their own voting systems. In the last fifteen years, we have seen the advent of Blockchain technology, which is an innovative technology that initiated as a newly alternative to the financial and banking systems that we had a couple of years ago. Evolving from cryptocurrency, whilst developing into other areas, such as banks, finance, governments and in various processes of democracy, such as voting systems. All this, leads to the fundamental objective of this dissertation, which is that of comparing and contrasting various voting-systems, primarily paper-ballot voting systems, e-voting systems operated by voting machines and blockchain-based voting systems, which are gradually being introduced in various democracies around the World. In essence, there are already in place blockchain voting systems being introduced by several European Union states such as Estonia, Romania and Switzerland. This dissertation aims to provide a deep analysis, whilst offering a contrast between current voting systems being used for many years, and voting systems operated by blockchain technology which are being tried and tested in other countries. Undoubtedly, a blockchain based voting system guarantees stricter authentication, anonymity and further practical production. Ultimately, this makes a blockchain-based voting system, much more reliable and transparent, especially when compared to other traditional voting systems, thereby recommending Malta in the near future, to start developing a blockchain-based voting system, which is more cost-effective, durable and reliable. It is therefore being recommended, that Malta adopts a blockchain-based voting system as a pilot-project, in the Local Councils Election to be held in May or June 2029.