Additional information about gender quotas

https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/es/annex/esy/esy_mt

https://constitutionnet.org/news/maltas-proposed-gender-top-system-good-intentions-questionable-means

"Single-Transferable Vote (STV) has been in use in Maltese elections since 1921, long before this small Mediterranean Island nation achieved independence from Britain in 1964. Although Malta subsequently became a republic and replaced the office of Governor-General (representative of the Queen) with a President, it retained the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy. The constitution mandates election of the members of the House of Representatives, Malta's unicameral parliament, 'upon the principle of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.' The maximum length of a parliamentary term is five years, but the legislature may be dissolved earlier. There are no other elective offices except for local councils introduced by the 1993 Local Councils Act, whose members are elected by STV as well. For purposes of parliamentary election the country is currently divided into 13 divisions, all of which is of roughly the same population size." (AceProject, n.d.)

"In January 2021, the Maltese Parliament approved on second reading reforms to the constitution as well as the law on elections that seek to enhance women’s representation in parliament and the Electoral Commission. The proposed reforms have received cross-party support and are set to be approved with the required two-thirds majority in the next stages.
The proposed constitutional changes before parliament are driven by a stark statistic: only nine of Malta’s current 67 members of parliament (MPs) are women, putting the country the second from lowest, after Hungary, for proportion of women MPs in Europe. This is reflected in the female employment rate of just 63 percent, which is among the bottom five in the European Union." (Borg, V. P., 2021)