****** CODEBOOK FOR MT-21-92.DAT: MALTESE ELECTION DATA ****** ============ DATA CONTAINED IN FILE: MT-21-92.DAT ============= SINGLE-TRANSFERABLE VOTE DATA: Only in Malta (and Ireland) are national elections conducted under the single-transferable-vote (STV) system. The use of this dataset assumes some familiarity with STV, such as the category of non- transferable votes and the need for repeated vote-transfer counts to determine the winners in multi-member districts. A majority of the variables involve voter transfers, as these are crucial to examinations of both inter-party and intra-party competition in an STV system. SCOPE OF THE DATASET: The dataset covers all parliamentary elections from 1921 to 1992 but not elections to the (short-lived and, by now, long defunct) Senate. The lower house has been variously known as the Legislative Assembly, the Council of Government and, since 1966, as the House of Representatives. All elections have been conducted under the single-transferable-vote system. The eighteen elections involve 968 individuals undertaking 2,834 candidacies. The dataset is organized by candidacies and contains (with records for non-transferable votes included) 2,992 separate records. The dataset contains the data in comma-delimited ASCII format. Data entry was performed in Quattro Pro. Because that program does not provide leading zeroes, the values of particular variables can vary in length from 1 to 5 digits. Thus care needs to be taken when importing the data into statistical programs: In SPSS, to give one example, it is imperative that the "freefield" rather than the "fixed" format be use SOURCES: The data were collected from the official "Declaration of Result of Poll," published after each election in the Malta Government Gazette, and the Annual Abstract of Statistics. The source data were not without problems: The Annual Abstracts contain a number of errors. Also, many candidates changed their first names from election to election and there were numerous candidates with identical names. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Michael J. Schiavone, of Independence Press in Malta, for his meticulous and generous help in sorting out many such candidate "identity crises." ========================= CODEBOOK ==================================== THE VARIABLES IN SEQUENTIAL ORDER ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (1)CASE Unique five-digit case/record number (the first two digits indicate the election year) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (2)ID Candidate's unique four-digit identification number 9999 = Non-transferable votes [Note: The category of non-transferable votes is is treated like a candidacy, as in each district it accumulates votes as the counts progress.] [Note: A file containing the actual names of the candidates, matched to their ID, is available in a separate file, named MALTA-1B.DAT] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (3)INCUMB 0 = Candidate did not serve during the previous legislative period 1 = Candidate served during the previous legislative period 2 = Candidate was a cabinet minister during all or part of the previous legislative period 99 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (4)SEX 1 = Male; 2 = Female; 99 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (5)QSHARE Quota Shares: Candidate's first-count votes, as a percentage of the district quota 0 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (6)PSIZE Party Size: Percentage of the first-count votes obtained by the candidate's party in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (7)PTOTAL Party Total: Number of first-count votes obtained by the candidate's own party ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (8)PSEATS Party Seats: Number of seats won by the candidate's party in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (9)PSHARE Party Share: Candidate's first-count votes, as a percentage of his/her party's first-count votes in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (10)TITLE 0 = n/a (unknown or occupation not categorized) 1 = M.D. [Tabib] 2 = Legal profession [LL.D.; Nutar; Legal Procurator] 3 = Pharmacist [Ph.C.; Spizjar] 4 = Unspecified specialization ["Dr." or "Prof."] 5 = Architect [A.&C.E.; Perit] 6 = Ecclesiastical 7 = Military 8 = Nobility 99 = Non-transferable votes [Note: If a candidate listed serveral titles, only the lowest- numbered of them has been entered: Thus, Count Luigi Preziosi, who also had a medical degree, has been coded as "1" for the for the M.D. rather than "8" for Nobility. Most candidates are coded "0" but no inference about social or economic status should be made here; persons in this category range from the the unemployed to occupants of high-level positions in government to leading members of the business community.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (11)PARTY 11 = CON Constitutionalist Party 12 = DNP Democratic Nationalist Party I (1924) 13 = MLP Malta Labour Party (before 1947, Labour Party) 14 = UPM Maltese Political Union 15 = PN Nationalist Party 16 = JON Jones Party 17 = DAP Democratic Action Party 18 = GOZ Gozo Party 19 = MWP Maltese Workers Party (Boffa Labour Group) 20 = PCP Progressive Constitutionalist Party 21 = CWP Christian Workers Party 22 = DNP Democratic Nationalist Party II (1962-66) 23 = COM Communist Party 24 = DP Democratic Party 26 = DCP Democratic Christian Party 27 = IL Independent Labour 28 = AD Alternattiva Demokratika 50 = IND Independents 99 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (12)YEAR Election year (last two digits) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (13)DIV Divison (i.e., election district) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (14)CAND Total number of candidates competing in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (15)OWN Total number of candidates from this candidate's own part competing in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (16)BALLOT1 Candidate's ballot position, regardless of party [From 1921 to 1971, all candidates were listed on the ballot alphabetically regardless of party. But since 1976, candidates have been grouped by party and listed alphabetically within the party slate. Therefore, the BALLOT1 variable becomes irrelevant for these later elections and is then coded as "99."] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (17)BALLOT2 Candidate's ballot position within candidate's party [See note for the preceding variable, BALLOT1.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (18)AGAIN Number of elections in which the candidate has competed: 1 = First election 2 = Second election 3 = Third election etc. 0 = Non-transferable votes [Note: The elections in which a candidate competed are not necessarily consecutive ones.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (19)DUAL Dual Candidacy: If the candidate was also a candidate in another election district, then that other district's number is indicated here. 0 = Candidate did not compete in another district 0 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (20)SEATS Number of seats to be filled in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (21)REG Number of registered voters in the district [Note: For the years 1921 through 1945, the data are only available for national totals. At the district level therefore, only estimated figures can be given. These estimates assume that in these early elections abstentions and invalid votes occurred in equal proportions in all districts.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (22)VOTE Number of valid votes cast in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (23)QUOTA Vote quota determined for the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (24)COUNTS Total number of counts conducted in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (25)INOUT The count on which the candidate was either elected or eliminated. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (26)WIN The order in which a candidate was elected 0 = Not elected 1 = Elected first in the district 2 = Elected second in the district etc. (maximum = 6) 99 = Non-transferable vote ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (27)FILLIN Filling-in of a seat which was vacated because a candidate had won a seat in two districts and another candidate was therefore chosen to to fill that seat through a "casual" [by-] election -1 = Vacated a seat won first in the district -2 = Vacated a seat won second in the district etc. +1 = filled a seat that had been won first in the distric +2 = filled a seat that had been won second in the distri etc. +9 = filled a seat to give the PN a legislative majority (this occurred only in the wake of the 1987 election) 0 No dual candidacy undertaken by the candidate 0 = Non-transferable vote [Note: This variable only covers changes resulting from a candidate's victory in two districts. It does NOT include the vacating of seats due to later resignation or death. Still, persons elected or co-opted for the latter reasons are treated as incumbents (in the INCUMB variable) for the subsequent election. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (28)SEATED 0 = Candidate neither won, nor was chosen in a by-election to fill a vacated seats -1 = Candidate won the district but vacated THIS seat because s/he won a seat in another district as well +1 = Candidate won in two districts and retained THIS seat ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (29)TOPS Candidate's highest vote total on any count ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (30)LAST Candidate's vote total on the last count ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (31) CT1 Candidate's votes on the first count CT2 Candidate's votes on the second count (thru) CT3 Candidate's votes on the third count through (67) CT37 Candidate's votes on the 37th count [Note: Differing numbers of counts are required in various election districts, mainly depending on the number of candidates who competed in a district. The minimum was two counts, the maximum 37 counts. To created a dataset which remains rectangular, missing values were assigned for those counts (below 37) that were not needed and thus not conducted in a district. In the variables CT2 through CT37, therefore, "-99" is used as the missing values indicator.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------