Alternattiva Demokratika emerged in the heated, even violent partisan two-party system of the Maltese islands in the late 1980s. Be the governing party either Labour or Nationalist (by a swing of a mere hundred votes), it would reign supreme in all spheres of political, economic and even private life. Malta's virtual party oligopoly effectively neuters any attempt by a third party to establish itself. Since 1962, the two parties have won 100% of the seats in Parliament. Understandably, the Maltese Greens have not scored big electoral successes (1.7% in the general elections of 1992; 1.5% in 1996; 1,21 in 1998 and 0.7% in 2003). The last three elections (1996, 1998 and 2003) have witnessed enormous swings (by Maltese standards) from one big party to the other. As many as 10 000 voters are shifting their vote. This amounts to about 4% of the voters and effectively could bring about a change in government. Unfortunately, because of the very difficult electoral system, Alternattiva was not benefiting at all from these massive swings. AT NATIONAL LEVEL, people preferred shifting their vote by 180 degrees from the Labour Party to the Christian Democrats, and vice versa, rather than going half way and trying us! However, one must point out that the 2003 national election focused solely on the EU issue and many of those in favour of joining felt they had to vote for the Nationalists even though they did not agree with them. This is because the Labour Party pledged to keep Malta out of the European Union.

Following this bad result however Alternattiva Demokratika achieved a huge success in the 2004 European Elections where it obtained a massive 9.33% of first count votes and around 12% of votes at the last count, thus obtaining the "sixth seat". This is one of the best results for Green Parties across the whole of Europe. At the moment, Malta has only 5 seats in the EP and this meant that AD missed electing a Green MEP for a few votes. However at the next European election Malta might be having six MEPs. The result of this European Election means that AD can look forward with confidence to the next National Election, as well as to the next European Elections.

The main issues that Alternattiva Demokratika is striving and pushing for are: the protection of the environment, the safeguarding of the social dimension, as well as working to bring about institutional reforms. A main theme we have been pursuing is the GREENING OF THE ECONOMY with particular reference to tourism since about a third of Malta's people depend on tourism for their livelihood.

The Malta Greens have been very active with regards to the referendum on EU accession and were acclaimed as one of the main winners of the referendum in March 2003 by all strata of Maltese society. Also, after an absence of five years, Alternattiva Demokratika contested the 2002 Local Council elections in 4 towns, which make up 10 % of the whole population. Though not electing anybody, the results were very encouraging, since we obtained respectively 9 %, 7 %, 6 % and 3 % in the four localities, which makes an average of 5.7 % on the four localities. AD contested local elections in March 2003, where we presented candidates in 8 of the 22 localities up for re-election. We obtained an average of 6.1% of the votes and elected 3 councillors in three different towns, in the process. In the Local Election of June 2004 Alternattiva Demokratika fielded candidates in 3 localities (out of 22) and just missed electing a local councillor in one locality with a huge 10.4% of the vote (just 30 votes more were needed!!) and elected another councillor (with 10%) in another village, bringing the number of Green councillors to 4.

During the past four years The Greens have participated in Local elections and have elected four local councillors in the Councils of Sliema, Attard, Sannat and Swieqi. 

In the national elections of March 2008, the two parties in the Maltese parliament are divided by the small amount of 1500 votes.  The 3800 votes obtained by Alternattiva Demokratika are therefore quite a determining factor in Maltese politics today.

In June 2008, Arnold Cassola, former Secretary General of EGP, was elected Chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika    

National Government: Nationalist Party (Christian Democrats)

Parties Represented in National Parliament (183 seats): Malta Labour Party

Next National Elections:

Latest Green Party Election Results:

• National Election Year: March 2008
  MPs:
  Total No. National Votes:3810
  % Gained:1.3
• European Elections: 2004
  MEPs:
  Total No. European Votes:23.000
  % Gained:9,33