Editing History of Malta (section)

==== Constitutional crisis in the 1980s ====
[[File:Strait street, Valletta, 1980.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|A "Vote PN" graffiti in Strait street, Valletta, 1980]]
The [[1981 Maltese general election|1981 general elections]] saw the [[Nationalist Party (Malta)|Nationalist Party]] (NP) gaining an absolute majority of votes, yet the Labour winning the majority of parliamentary seats under the [[Single Transferable Vote]] and Mintoff remained Prime Minister, leading to a political crisis. The Nationalists, now led by [[Eddie Fenech Adami]], refused to accept the electoral result and also refused to take their seats in Parliament for the first years of the legislature, mounting a campaign demanding that Parliament should reflect the democratic will of the people. Despite this, the Labour government remained in power for the full five-year term. Mintoff resigned as Prime Minister and Party leader and appointed [[Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici]] as his successor in 1984.

The Mifsud Bonnici years were characterised by political tensions and violence. After a five-year debate, Fenech Adami, through the intervention of Dom Mintoff, reached an agreement with [[Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici]] to improve the constitution. Constitutional amendments were made voted and made effective in January 1987 which guaranteed that the party with an absolute majority of votes would be given a majority of parliamentary seats in order to govern. This paved the way for the return of the Nationalist Party to government later that year.