The Common Country Movement (KOM) proposed using STV for electing representatives of non-resident nationals to the National Assembly in 2017, but the bill brought to parliament by five opposition parties was dismissed by the governing coalition. India STV is not used for direct elections in India, but is used for the indirect election of most members of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the federal parliament. The Rajya Sabha consists of 250 members: twelve are nominated by the President of India while the remainder are elected using STV by members of the legislatures of the states and the union territories. The number of members of the Rajya Sabha elected by each state and union territory is loosely proportionate to its population, such that, , Bihar, with a population of 82 million, is represented by 22 members, while Sikkim, with a population of 540,000 is represented by just one member. In addition, the federal president and vice-president are indirectly elected by MPs using alternative vote, which is STV applied to one vacancy at a time. Malta STV has been used in all elections in Malta since 1921. Its 65 members of the House of Representatives are elected in 13 five-seat districts. As well, top-up seats (similar to the additional member system) may be added in the national parliament to ensure that a party with a majority of first-preference votes wins a majority of seats. This mechanism was brought in as a response to the controversial 1981 election when the Nationalist Party won 51% of the first-preference vote but the Labour Party won a majority of the seats. Some subsequently accused Labour of having gerrymandered the five-seat constituencies: eight had narrowly split 3:2 in its favour, while five had more widely split 3:2 in favour of the Nationalists. The top-up rule was also invoked in 1987 for the benefit of the Nationalists and in 1996 for the benefit of the Labour Party. The Maltese electorate largely does not take advantage of the cross-party voting opportunities provided by STV. Almost all voters give preferences to all the candidates from one of the two major parties, but do not give preferences to candidates from the other party. Third parties, meanwhile, get minimal support. The effect of this voting pattern is similar to a tight two-party open list PR system simultaneously using STV within each party to decide its representatives whilst using the indicated