****** CODEBOOK FOR MT-21-96.DAT: MALTESE ELECTION DATA ****** ============ DATA CONTAINED IN THE FILE MT-21-96.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. There are 67 variables for each of the cases. A majority (37) of the variables indicate vote transfers, which are crucial for analyses of inter-party or intra-party competition in an STV system. SCOPE OF THE DATASET: The dataset covers all parliamentary elections from 1921 to 1996 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 19 elections involve 1,046 individuals undertaking 3,082 candidacies. The dataset is organized by candidacies and contains (with records for non-transferable votes included) 3,253 separate records. The data are 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. Consequently, 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 used. 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 such candidate "identity crises." John C. Lane psclane@acsu.buffalo.edu April 1997 ========================= CODEBOOK ==================================== THE VARIABLES IN SEQUENTIAL ORDER (Note that the number and the sequence of variables differ from earlier versions of this database and codebook.) A. IDENTIFYING VARIABLES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (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 MT-NAMES.DAT] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (3) YEAR Election year (last two digits) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (4) DIST Election District (formal name: Electoral Division) B. DISTRICT VARIABLES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (5) 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.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (6) VOTE Number of valid votes cast in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (7) QUOTA Vote quota determined for the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (8) SEATS Number of seats to be filled in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (9) COUNTS Total number of counts conducted in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (10) CAND Total number of candidates competing in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (11) OWN Total number of candidates from this candidate's own party competing in the district ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (12) PTOTAL Party Total: Number of first-count votes obtained by the candidate's own party 0 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (13) PSIZE Party Size: Percentage of the first-count votes obtained by the candidate's party in the district 0 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (14) PSEATS Party Seats: Number of seats won by the candidate's party in the district 0 = Non-transferable votes, or no seats won C. CANDIDATE VARIABLES: BACKGROUND ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (15) SEX 1 = Male; 2 = Female; 99 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (16) TITLE Candidate's title or occupation 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 several 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 leading members of the business community.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (17) 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (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) 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (20) LOCAL Local election experience: Indicates whether a candidate was a candidate in one of the preceding elections to the local government councils. 0 = No 1 = Yes -1 = Not applicable because there were no prior local elections [Note: There were no local councils and elections thereto until after the general election of 1991. Therefore, it is only with the 1996 election that local election experience is possible.] D. CANDIDATE VARIABLES: PERFORMANCE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (21) Q-SHARE Quota Shares: Candidate's first-count votes, as a percentage of the district quota 0 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (22) Q-ORDER Order of quota shares: Indicates a candidate's rank, among all candidates in the district, in the share of the quota obtained on the first count. 1 = highest quota share; 2 = second-highest share; etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- (23) P-SHARE Party Share: Candidate's first-count votes, as a percentage of his/her party's first-count votes in the district 0 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (24) P-ORDER Order of party candidates: Indicates the candidate's rank, among all of his/her party's candidates in the district, in obtaining a share of the quota. 1 = highest quota share; 2 = second-highest quota share; etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (25) BALLOT1 Candidate's ballot position, regardless of party 1 = top ballot position; 2 = second ballot position, etc. 0 = Non-transferable vote [NOTE: 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."] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (26) BALLOT2 Candidate's ballot position within candidate's party 1 = top ballot position; 2 = second ballot position, etc. 0 = Non-transferable vote [See note for the preceding variable, BALLOT1.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (27) 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 99 = non-transferable vote ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (28) IN-OUT The count on which the candidate was either elected or eliminated. 99 = Non-transferable vote ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (29) 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (30) 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 party with a majority of the first-count votes a legislative majority. This occurred only in the wake of the 1987 and 1996 elections. 0 = No dual candidacy undertaken by the candidate 99 = 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, #19, above) for the subsequent election.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (31) SEATED 0 = Candidate neither won nor was chosen in a by-election to fill a vacated seat, or candidate won in two districts and opted to VACATE THIS seat 1 = Candidate won or was chosen in a by-election or, having won in two districts, opted to RETAIN THIS seat 99 = Non-transferable votes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (32) TOPS Candidate's highest vote total on any count ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (33) LAST Candidate's vote total on the last count E. CANDIDATE VARIABLES: VOTE TRANSFERS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (34) CT1 Candidate's votes on the first count (35) CT2 Candidate's votes on the second count (36) CT3 Candidate's votes on the third count .... etc. etc. .... (67) CT37 Candidate's votes on the 37th count [Note: Differing numbers of counts are required to determine the winning candidacies in various election districts, the number of counts mainly depending on the number of candidates who competed in a district. From 1921 to 1996 the minimum needed was two counts, the maximum 37 counts. To create 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 CT3 through CT37, therefore, "-1" is used as the missing values indicator.]