More paranoia from Lejber
The Labour Party’s ‘electoral commission’ has banned the five leadership contenders from participating in the television show Xarabank this Friday. Before doing this, it first allowed them – gee, thanks – to participate as long as (1) there was no audience, (2) the show was recorded instead of going out live, and (3) the recording was handed over to Lejber’s ‘electoral commission’ for censorship before being broadcast.
Joe Azzopardi hit the roof, of course. He argued that the show has been transmitted live with an audience from day one, and he doesn’t see why he should change this just to keep Lejber’s ‘electoral commission’ happy. More to the point, he will not submit to censorship by the Labour Party. Damn right. It’s about time these paranoid, dictatorial and authoritarian people climbed out of their hole and joined the real world.
When their outrageous conditions were refused outright, Lejber’s ‘electoral commission’ stamped their little feet and said, mela issa they’re not going to allow anyone to participate, hekk. Four of the contenders bowed their heads to the will of these throw-backs and said nothing, which is not a good sign in a potential prime minister. And George Abela, of course, objected and said that he won’t agree to censorship. Ah, but here’s the thing: Lejber says that any contender who defies its instructions and goes on the show will be banned from running for election. So Abela is faced with Hobson’s choice: either he goes on the show to promote his cause and ends up losing his cause altogether, or he does something that goes completely against the grain – difficult if not impossible for somebody with such a strong character – and bows and scrapes to the ‘electoral commission’ with Joseph Muscat and the rest of them, which will make him look equally craven.
And here we see yet more evidence of how the Lejber Party has been run for years, which is why it has failed miserably at everything it has tried to do.
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My goodness, a leopard never changes its spots. Back to the 70’s and 80’s. The labour party claps its hand and everyone has to dance to the music, and it is not even in government! What a waste of space it is, but we have to be extra careful because given the chance Labour will take us to the very far left.
Is Alfred Sant perchance the “lijder” of said commission?
* * *
This process is becoming more and more painful to watch. It seems that while there is a “campaign” going on to determine the leader, there are a number of people in the party who are playing leader and making a complete mess of it.
* * *
Yesterday watching Bondi interview Stephan Zrinzo was probably the most saddening of it all. The “president” of the party being practically scolded by Bondi for not doing a decent job, and Stephen sitting their like a naughty and ashamed little school boy trying to worm himself out of trouble:
Stefan: We did have polls… No I didn’t see the polls… Only at the end did I see the polls… The polls were accuracte, I just didn’t see them… It, it it… wasn’t my fault, no one showed them to me. We were winning. I didn’t know we were losing. Till the end. The polls weren’t faulty. We had polls I think….
LOU: DID YOU SEE THE POLLS?!
Stefan: Only at the very end.
LOU: And what were they showing?
Stefan: That we were winning. (lowers his head in shame)
Stefan: I did my job for the campaign. I took over the house-visits from Alfred Sant when he got sick.
Dear Daphne, I think you are getting it all wrong. The MLP electoral commission is not scared of Peppi Azzopardi and his programme or his questions! The MLP Electoral Commission is scared of a certain candidate that will do his utmost (with the help of certain elements of the CURRENT members of the administration) to do the same ‘rent-a-crowd’ thing that happened before the election! This decision by the Electoral Commission has been implemented due to the fact that unfortunately not all candidates seem to be willing to cooperate together to make this process a successful one. What will happen should each candidate be allowed to go on Xarabank is that the annointed one will be allowed to have a mass meeting by repeating with his usual pathetic smile that Gonzi should pay up blah blah blah! He will also bring testimonials of how good he must be and so on and so forth! So in my opinion, although it seems like a bit paranoid (that I have to admit), the decision that the MLP Electoral Commission took was a good one!
Bondi: The report you commissioned criticized every single aspect of the campaign and the Labour party, basically saying that your party did nothing well.
(a few minutes later)
Stefan: I think we should not just focus on the bad. We should expand on all the positive aspects of the campaign and continue to develop this great party for more success.
Having watched Bondi+ yesterday I feel that Michael Falzon should retire from the leader race and back George Abela. It is very apparent that the establishment is doing its best in hampering any chance he ever had, to point that the extension of voting for an hour was a mistake by MF is truly unbelievable. In my opinion MF should be given the Republic Day honour, imagine if he and eventually all of MLP said no to the electoral commission to extend voting for an hour. With any doubt the commission would have still extended the time of voting given that people were queuing. Can you for a minute reflect and imagine the havoc that that would have created? Even more when one considers how close the election was. And then the report goes into length into damning the decision, very good report indeed!!
If MF truly wants MLP to come out of this deep black hole using the enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thinking applies.
My opinion has always been that of “Poor, Poor, Malta – it has only 1 Party (the PN) that is relevant to the nation’s needs – despite all of its shortcomings. The MLP has and will always be, no matter who wins the leadership competition, totally irrelevant”. And to support this – I just say – look at which Party has always made history – (Independence – Europe – the EURO) and now Malta has also been listed as one of the Economic Miracles of the world ! -Heq! – tghid mhux grazzi ghall-MLP (MOP) u l-ideat stagnati u mmuffati taghhom !! U ddizintegraw u halluna nghixu !!
Surely, if in all the areas where there were queues of people waiting to vote, and assuming that these queues were evident throughout the day, one must ensure that voters are given the chance to vote. One would have thought that if polling had to close at a stipulated time, then the authorities would allow all those people in the queue at the time the polls had to close to vote, irrespective of locality.
Tomassi there was no rent-a-crowd at university. Be true to yourself and swallow it.
I dont think that Michael Falzon should pull out of the race and support George Abela. Till now Michael Falzon was the person that emerged as the ideal person to replace Alfred Sant. Michael, yesterday showed that he resisted what Alfred Sant said and tried to improve the situation but in the end, for unity’s sake, he did not go public so as not to harm the party! He is now the ideal candidate that will bring change in the party because he has lived through the wrong and knows exactly what needs to be changed unlike Joseph Muscat that knows what was wrong with the party but in this electoral campaign is embracing the wrong instead of speaking out against it. George Abela on the otherhand has been too much of an outsider for party delegates to trust him!
Harping back to the past! This makes choice reading!
Tuesday, 27th May 2008 – 11:33CET
Moran, Micallef back Coleiro Preca
Former Labour ministers Daniel Micallef and Vincent Moran this morning endorsed Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca in the MLP leadership contest.
Both spoke at a breakfast meeting hosted by Notary Coleiro Preca for delegates and members of the MLP’s Veterans’ Section.
Dr Micallef, a former Speaker and Minister for Education and the Environment, praised Notary Coleiro Preca for her principles, particularly her honesty, but also for her role as a mother.
Dr Moran, a longer serving Minister of Health, recalled Notary Coleiro Preca’s work as general secretary of the Labour Party in what, he said, were difficult times. Dr Moran urged party delegates to vote wisely at the leadership election and to heed the lessons of the past.
Notary Coleiro Preca praised the Labour veterans fr their service to the party, as well as the service they continue to give the country, particularly in voluntary organisations, an area, she said, which was close to her heart.
She also underscored the need for today’s young to be told of the Labour Party’s role in the social, economic and political development of Malta, fearing that what the young knew of the past of the MLP was what they were spoon-fed by the PN.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080527/local/moran-micallef-back-coleiro-preca
I am morally convinced that the Labour Electoral Commission took the decision re Xarabank because it was scared stiff that George Abela would prove to be the most excellent choice out of the five contenders.
George Abela should defy this dictatorial attitude. Let them disqualify him and after that, let them eat cake!
I think Martin Schulz refused to come all the way back to Malta for Xarabank. Therefore the inevitable decision :
No Kapo’ Schulz No poodle No Xarabank. Addio Indhil Barrani. Addio von Hassel. What a pathetic lot !
@Tommasi – yes, that may be one reason for the ban, and I would say it was certainly the thinking behind the desire to have no audience. But remember that it’s not audience support or lack of it that counts, but who that audience is. In the electoral campaign Xarabank shows with Sant and with Gonzi, the audience tended to be more pro-Labour and vociferously so, but this didn’t impress the wider television audience out there – for the simple reason that Xarabank audiences tend not to be very impressive (except negatively). Then, on the other hand, the opinion of the student audience booing Alfred Sant at the university did influence public opinion because the opinions of university students carry weight and credibility in a wider sense.
I can’t see what the fuss is all about with the extension of voting time by one hour. I just can’t follow the logical sequence of the commission’s arguments. No comprehensive data is available on how many people voted during that hour, and in which localities – or perhaps it simply hasn’t been made public. Even if the commission did have access to this data, how does it know how those people voted and who benefited? There is no way it can know. And if the commission has the names and details of those who voted during that hour, and is making its own assumptions as to their voting preferences, then there is cause for a hue and cry about gross invasion of privacy. To go from this lack of information to the wild assumption that (1) lots of people rushed out to vote PN in that hour, (2) this affected Labour’s fortunes and (3) it was all Michael Falzon’s fault because he agreed to the extension is the kind of series of mental somersaults that has A-level philosophy students failing their logic classes.
@Daphne Caruana Galizia
You are definitely right on that point but unfortunately you are missing a point! The labour delegates are not like the ‘majority’ of the population. Unfortunately, I must add, they are people that move with the flow and reason things with their hearts. There are many siding with Joseph Muscat because they long for Alfred Sant and dare to say some want him back! They will support Joseph Muscat because NET News and other ‘independent’ media attack him! Whereas the majority of opinionists condemned the visit by Martin Schultz (and fairly so) the delegates looked in awe to the almighty Joseph Muscat! Having a Joseph Muscat Mass Meeting on Xarabank would convince the majority of the Delegates that he is the new almighty leader following Alfred Sant, i.e. Suicide for our Party!
I have just finished watching Bondi+ on di-ve, and I must say that (1) I am getting to like more and more Michael Falzon – this man seems to have real balls, something which is sorely lacking in the MLP and (2) MLP is in a really disastrous state. No new MLP leader will solve the gargantuan issues therein. A new MLP leader is just the topmost tip of the iceberg, it needs to overhaul totally its admin from top to bottom. From what is being known now, MLP has been for ages in a state of total anarchy, to be frank, I can’t fathom how the party can rebuild from scratch its whole structure in time for the new election.
In my humble opinion, the MLP needs in reality two leaders ‘di stoffa’ – a leader who will take responsibilty of rebuilding the political vision of the party, and a Secretary General who will rebuild the admninistration of the party.
Good luck to both – you sorely need it.
@Tommasi
You don’t get it mate. Look at the profile of the average delegate. You should then understand that the great majority of the delegates will never question what comes out with the MLP official stamp on. As soon as the OFFICIAL report damned MF, he lost any chances he ever had. The delegates will blindly trust the analysis report, most especially since it has been so critical.
Although my blood boils at the antics of the MLP “electoral commission” by their attempted censorship, and their remote hope to have George Abela stumble into one of their traps to provide a convenient reason to disqualify his canditure for party leader, by using the strength of his personal integrity as a vulnerability, I think Abela will show sufficient integrity, courage, and political experience to advance his campaign.
I also think Xarabank can succeed on its sound principles, and they will find a way to turn a sour situation to their advantage. [Logically, it is a bit insane to bar MLP candidates from appearing on the most popular show in Maltese television; but then, a power clique is defending its own interest, not those of the party.]
The down side is that if the MLP clique prevail and install Joseph Muscat, and they are incapable, thereby, of reform (root and branch), then I foresee the possibility of a third party emerging from the ashes of the MLP (The Democratic Malta Labour Party), a truly New Labour lead by George Abela, along with a sizeable chunk of others within the party, disillusioned by the MLP.
Such a possibilty, for the moment, is still premature and not yet conceived, but like weather conditions for a fierce tornado, the sky and the clash of high/low pressure areas are looking ominous. Usually third party movements are not successful because of the power of incumbency of the party and his political machinery (although given the financial state of the MLP, they are vulnerable, although they have the infrastructure).
But the threat and risk of a third party’s birth also could mobilize constructive forces within the MLP. It is also possible, instead of such a potential development for a third party, that the minority could convince the majority within the MLP delegates to vote for George Abela, just as social-psychological research on jury deliberations and decision making processes have shown, provided that there is ADEQUATE DISCUSSION WITHIN THE JURY [in this case, among MLP delegates and party members and candidates]. A quick vote and limited discussion will produced unsatisfactory results, and felt as such by delegates, and this could prompt a party-split.
But, as sociology and psychology have shown, it is very hard to go against the establishment power clique, who it seems are clearly backing Joseph Muscat. The MLP is entirely free to take its own wrongful decisions, but those wrongful decisions also could destroy the MLP. I don’t think George Abela would join forces with the MLP in the hands of the present power clique.
If a third party develops, a fractured MLP could not win an election, but you would likely have three political parties represented in parliament: a leading Majority PN, along with, for the first time, two sizeable minority parties, or even a coalition excluding the MLP from government, and perhaps, eventually, from history.
But, a unified MLP under the leadership of George Abela is likely to lead to a MLP victory. What the MLP do in five years is anyone’s guess. But five years is a long time in politics, and the vicissitudes of history, especially of political history, are largely unforeseen. The PN, in their governance, could become stronger, or weaker, but they certainly have better campaign acumen (evidence general elections and one referendum).
But there seems to be only one possibility, now, for a future success, if rationality prevails. In some countries, political circumstances have thrown out reason altogether. It is even possible in Malta, but Malta seems to be influenced more by reason than by emotion in its modern historical choices for the PN.
In Malta, I hope sanity and good judgment prevail for both political parties, so that we can see both parties ably in government. But someday, if the present circumsances set the uncharted course, the governing alternative to the PN may not be the MLP.
I don’t get the reason for many people on this blog condemning Martin Schulz’s endorsement of Joseph Muscat for MLP leader. Is it not standard practice for politicians to seek endorsements from high profile figures and groups when they are running for office? Schulz’s endorsement was an effective coup for Joseph Muscat because it undercut George Abela’s claim to be the only real “pro-European” candidate among the contenders! Maybe that’s what got up Daphne’s nose and led her to write her Sunday column ridiculing Joseph Muscat for getting this important endorsement. Face it Daphne and all of you out there, the race for MLP leader is pretty much over and Schulz’s endorsement was the last nail in Abela’s political coffin! Can’t say I think much of Muscat but as much as there are questions about Muscat’s maturity there are also questions about Abela. This man is clearly not a team player (now Daphne can recast that as being that he is a man of solid principles bla bla and so forth). He disagreed with the MLP leadership’s decision to hold an early election and walked! He fell out with the GWU and walked! Maybe it is not such a bad thing that Abela will soon be out of the limelight. Now if only there was someone other than Joseph Muscat to lead the party. What’s wrong with Michael Falzon?
[Moderator – It isn’t normal or ‘standard practice’. Can you imagine Gordon Brown holding a press conference in Harare to declare his endorsement of Morgan Tsvangira? No you can’t, because when powerful governments tell people who aren’t their citizens who to elect, it’s a recipe for disastrous bilateral relations. I can just imagine Martin Schulz going to tell any other of the candidates if they get elected, ‘Oh, I’m sorry about that. But no hard feelings, eh?’. The comparisons to US presidential nominees are just ridiculous because when businessmen and delegates endorse nominees they are not playing a zero-sum game with bilateral relations between states. Martin Schulz is not ‘just a high profile figure’: he is a representative of one of Europe’s highest institutions.]
Not that I watch Xarabank; but what would happen should
the five contestants decide to ignore the commission’s ruling?
[Moderator – This is a textbook example of what’s called the prisoner’s dilemma in game theory. You can’t resolve to cooperate or to defect without expecting the same behaviour from your counterpart.]
After the EU membership Referendum, The New York Times had interviewed Joseph Muscat in his previous life as anti-EU campaigner. Here’s part of the report:
”It would lead to an erosion of competitiveness for our country,” said Joseph Muscat, a senior official with the opposition Labor Party, which fervently opposes membership. In a telephone interview, Mr. Muscat also said the structure of European Union government meant that a country like Malta ”really doesn’t have any type of voice.”
This is the link:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.htmlres=950DE3D61F3FF933A25750C0A9659C8B63
He soon discovered that, though not any type of voice at all in the EU, a cushy seat in Brussels/Strasbourg was not to be sniffed at, was it?
Nigel Farage of the Anti-EU Brigade within the European Parliament would have given him an even more glowing endoresement than Martin Schulz.
He’s very young, our Dr Muscat, yet his baggage is already considerable!
@Moderator. I would see your point if Schulz was Head of Socialist Party in an individual member state – that would be, shudder the thought, foreign interference. A little bit like Flaminio Piccoli showing up at a mass meeting to give Fenech Adami a boost in public when he needed it. Or like Brown endorsing Tsvangira. Not kosher. The Schulz endorsement of Muscat is a different kettle of fish. Schulz is head of the parliamentary group of which Muscat’s party forms a part in the European Parliament – a supranational institution of which Malta is a member. Big difference! Schulz came over to give fellow European Socialist Parliamentarian a helping hand and underscore his European credentials. Don’t see anything wrong with that except if you’re an Abela for MLP leader supporter and you’re wincing at seeing your candidate being dealt a deadly blow!
[Moderator – I don’t see it as a deadly blow to any of the other candidates because I’m more pragmatic than that. The medium is the message, and Schulz is a medium with a whole lot of political baggage: he is not just another person – evidently, otherwise Joseph Muscat would never have brought his handsome date along to the party. If the European Parliament is a supranational one, then he commands a quarter of this continent’s legislature. In an ideal world people will ignore that baggage, but then the history of diplomacy would not be as interesting as it is. Wars have been declared for lesser offences: France first invaded Algeria after the Dey of Algiers struck its consul with a fly-swatter.]
I never expected the Leadership race to be anywhere similar to the election of a Badessa but I also did not expect the venemous strains within the Labour party to emerge so evidently. The report is nothing more than one more way of feathering the blame on some and accentuating it on others. This race will lead to no good. Joseph will not be able to gather the other 4 contenders around him and a split within the Party now seems the only way for enlightened labourites to go propelled by the thinking, democratic, unattached part of the leadership contenders. George Abela should seriously consider the post-election possibilty of creating a new, modern labour Party. He will not be alone in building a new Party that addresses itself ,in modern idiom , to the electorate at large with a winning programme at election time.
Baggage? What baggage can young, ambitous, know it all, brash, red goatee sporting men possibly bring back from Brussels?
I once heard someone talk about rabbit breeding in the same context as Brussels.
Perish the thought!
@Moderator. In order to be totally even handed here. Besides analogy drawn with Piccoli endorsing Fenech Adami there is of course the case of Colonel Khadafi showing up before 1976 elections to strongly hint at MLP mass meeting that only way Malta would continue to get cheap oil was if MLP were to stay in power. All of these are unacceptable. Schulz/Muscat is different – we’re dealing with endorsement by Head of European Parliamentary Group of which MLP MEPs are members and not Head of foreign Parliament interfering in local issues. Schulz restricted his comments to European credentials of Muscat. Hard to see how this is unacceptable interference. If Head of European Socialist Group had been Maltese would Moderator still be crying foul?
[Moderator – If Martin Schulz were Maltese it would not be I who would be crying foul, but the 200 other MEPs under his command. Trust Malta to pioneer the field of supranational nepotism.]
What a perfect example of ‘poor minds’.
I bet anyone in here that any village idiot anywhere in Gozo is more reasonable and logical then most in here.
Most comments today are just not even worth the wasted ink.
J. Dalli and Dr L Gonzi( race for Capo) would be have been much more interesting then the 5 mlp contestants’ race.
But of course …. the lot of you makes me laugh.
@Moderator. Muscat brought his Parliamentary “boss” along to endorse him because his “boss’s” endorsement carried weight in an area where he was perceived as being weak (was he really pro-European?). What use would an endorsement be if it came from a nobody like me or maybe you? An endorsement carries weight because it comes from a somebody. That’s why Mintoff’s endorsement of George Abela helped sink his candidacy – it came from a big kahuna who is anathema to most Labour Party delegates! George Abela might as well have been endorsed by Daphne!
P.S. Interesting trivia about the Bey of Algiers. Talk about using any old excuse to do what you had every intention of doing all along.
I think it should be the media who should rebel against this decision – and what better way than to invite each delegate to send a ‘proxy’ to Xarabank, without attending directly, and have a good old discussion there?
It won’t be the same as measuring the candidates through their words and composure, but at least it’d represent this contest for what it truly is – a sick and pre-ordained charade.
Maybe we are not seeing the twist in all this. It is obvious that with the 4 against 1 format that this lijderxipp contest has become, Xarabank may prove dangerous to the canine successur midluk ( jew imdellek, words fail me at this time). Therefore the electoral commission, made up by no doubt closet admirereres of the Great Goatee, wants to further stack the odds in his favour by not letting anyone go on Xarabank. Unelieveable how these people act. Its another leaf taken out of Lino Spiteri’s novella “Snakes and Ladders in the MLP Lijderxipp races “. You have to hand it to the Boy…..he is quite machiavellian in his way. That means that no one in the Amministrazzjoni wants to ride off into the Political Sunset. My bet is this. The Lijder will be Joe, Flanked by Joe Mifsud and Miss Pepsodent.And hey presto, il-partit iggedded!
@Peter Muscat
You have every right to think so, but either specify why you think we all are worse than the village idiot, and why the race for PN leadership is more interesting, or else don’t write at all. What you wrote is indeed wasted ink…
Prosit MLP for this courageous decision. Just because someone who calls himself Peppi requests the presence of guests to fill his studio so that he can earn his money, does not mean that anyone is obliged to be present. As he said, he will do the programme anyway. So be it. But he will have to do it alone.
In any case, describing Xarabank as a “current affairs programme” is streching the definition to the limit. This programme is all about fortune-tellers, hypnotists brought over more than once to hoodwink the public, programmes meant to titillate by mentioning the 10 favourite female sex fantasies, and such trash. It is “telespazzatura” par excellance. So let them do it alone.
At the moment what the MLP needs is to take care of its wounds. There is no general election coming up. This is not the moment for cheap theatrics. This is about whether Malta will remain a two-party state or go the way of Putin’s Russia, where the governing party somehow always wins.
I was shocked by the comments of a certain “CATherine”, this morning at 1115hrs, in this blog.
She concluded saying !! U ddizintegraw u halluna nghixu !!
Very worrying words indeed.
…..The MLP needs a lijder that can win them an election not someone they ‘fancy’. Do the laburisti defending the Poodle get this? Nahhhhhh…..
In my opinion Albert Farrugia’s comment above completly captures the way of thinking of the average delegate.
As I said above, whatever comes stamped with the official MLP logo is never contested, if you do you are actually a traitor and sent away by the dixxiplina board. That is why MLP is and will remain in this mess. The ‘party machine’ doesn’t work and everyone knows that, but very few want to do something about. Either because they don’t know how to or because they do not grasp that it needs to be fixed to get going again, in the meantime the PN is running lightyears away with very little effort at the expense of the country’s potential.
@Uncle Fester – arguments can be tested by taking them to the extreme. Would Martin Schulz ever consider flying to London to tell a gathering of the British national press, when Gordon Brown finally flunks out, who he thinks is the best choice for Labour Party leader – with that man sitting by his side? Of course not. And it would never occur to that leadership contender to consider such a strategem. And if he did, it wouldn’t be just the press who would rip him to shreds all over the front pages and in a zillion commentaries, but the Labour Party itself.
What does this tell you? That a politician will only fly in to interfere in the leadership election of a political party of a country not his own when (1) the country or organisation he represents (in this case, both) are larger and stronger than the country in which he is interfering, (2) the political party in which he is interfering is neither big nor strong by the standards of his own country/organisation, (3) the country which he is visiting to interfere is considered inferior in the colonialist manner, allowing him to feel there is nothing wrong with patronising a political party there. Martin Schulz’s gesture was completely ill-advised and unethical, Joseph Muscat showed that he thinks of himself, his party and his country as inferior by inviting such patronising behaviour, and the Labour Party shows itself to have been hijacked by Joseph Muscat and his own personal patron when it fails to condemn his behaviour. In its thinking, it’s all right for a contender to import the opinion of foreign politicians and hold a public circus that draws down opprobrium, but it is not OK for all the contenders to go on a television show together.
Those who make comparisons with the endorsements of politicians in the USA and elsewhere are missing the crucial point that the people making those endorsements are citizens of the same country in which the election is being held, and will be voting in that election. In other words, they share the citizenship of the politician they are endorsing and have a direct interest in how the country is run. The same cannot be said of a politician flown in from elsewhere, which causes us to ask: what’s in it for him?
is there any reason why “Peter Muscat” (and anyone else coming from his IP address) is being allowed to continue insulting everyone’s intelligence? I’ve nothing against his opinions, puerile as they are, but his childish insults are getting tedious.
@Albert Farrugia – your reference to cheap theatrics includes the Martin Schulz sponsorship, I take it?
L me repeat what the good Catherine said, Mr Albert Farrugia.
Begone ! Disappear into the Night! Havent you caused enough damage to Mala already? Go ! We dont want you around, except to poke fun at you. But even that is no justification for the MLP’s existence. Kixxu L-hemm! U hallu lil min irid jaqdi lil pajjiz johrog.
@Mario Debono
Well, you know, the thing is we who are not mesmerised by the GonziPN hoax will not disappear. We are a majority, as seen by the election result.
@Alex
The electoral campaign report actually said that in the MLP “kulhadd jaghmel li jrid”. Far from a party where everyone obeys the rubberstamp! “The party machine doesnt work”, you say. But could you please decide? Is “the party machine” controlling everything to get Joseph Muscat elected, or is it “not working”? Which is it?
[Moderator – No one said that ‘not working’ and working to get Joseph Muscat elected are mutually exclusive.]
When mentioning the one hour extension of the voting time some one is misleading.
Common sense says that whoever at 10 p.m. is in the queue to vote he is entitled to cast his vote even if the voting has to extend up to midnight or more.
What is not fair is to allow voters to join the queue after 10 p.m.
That is condemnable, and that is what was allowed to happen to give arrivals from abroad the chance to vote though they were not in line to vote at 10.p.m.
A funny thing might happen. A voter enters the polling boot behind the curtain and starts writing a long story that takes him, let’s exaggerate, one hour. Most probably it will create panic but I don’t thing any one can intervene as this voter might say that he is being spied.
As for Peppi saying or calling “mela” “mela” does he mean he is after an apple? And I would ask him how does the back of his middle finger taste, he is always licking it.
Good to leave him all alone conducting a program without speakers and audience. Who does he think he is this Peppi? Have you noticed that he is getting fat in the literary meaning of the word? I am not referring to his pocket. That’s out of question.
I am no fan of Peppi and his program. I have met him once a number of years ago (my bro used to work with him in a known company’s animation team) and he same across as being a strange obstrusive man.
Having said that, Xarabank is a very popular program watched by the majority of Malta (as the Italians say, it’s a nazional-popolare program) and leadership hopefuls should welcome participation in such a medium that gives them instant contact with many people who would consider voting them as prospective Prime Ministers in 5 years time.
Non-participation would bring them to the level Sant used to stand, where for years he shied away from any chance of meeting other persons in a supposedly level playing-field.
According to Labour’s report, it was the PN who first requetsed an extension in the voting time by an hour as early as 4pm. It is probable that they knew that the arrivals from abroad would not manage to make it by 10pm to vote. How many voters were there remains open to question but as daph said, it would indeed be a gross invasion of privacy if these details were to be made public.
Why has everyone forgotten the makku? Only a makku mentality could accept and purport to thrive on this puerile Indhil Barrani. Those who want to be the baliena of the EU are, at heart, makku.
The MLP is still at makku stage and, unfortunately,it seems as if it will stay makku for the foreseeable future. Malta has grown these last twenty years to at least a cernia. At this rate, by 2013, the country will be a denfil feeding on makku. There will be little makku left then. I will miss my fritturi tal-makku, this blog and living in a multiparty democracy.
@Gerald – you’re talking mainly through your rear-end (a not unknown phenomenon) People arriving in Malta at any time after midnight on the THURSDAY BEFORE THE ELECTION would not have been able to collect their Voting Document. And the request came from Labour first – this I have from impeccable sources.
I believe that the new MLP leader should demand an official investigation as to why voting was extended by an hour. Frankly I do not believe those within the MLP who are saying that the decision was taken by the Electoral Commission acting by itself. Anyone who knows how elections are conducted in Malta knows that not even a table or chair is moved from its place by the Commission without the political parties giving some form of approval. Let alone extending voting by an hour…and…remember…in ALL polling stations, not in some place where there were problems. How is it possible that with voting open from 7AM till 10PM some people do not find the time to vote. Why are we ordinary citizens being treated as simpletons who believe all that is said?
The excuse that there were people in the queues is absolutely no reason to extend voting time, as the law clearly says that anyone in the queue will be allowed to vote.
The MLP should have objected outright to such a proposal, especially since it concerned all polling stations.
Who needed this extra hour? And why? This should be investigated.
The one hour extension was only requested/granted because of operational issues in particular areas where voters had to vote for the LC and General elections. The Electoral Commission messed up in not anticipating this problem (what happened on other occasions?).
Anyone who has true democracy at heart would immediately acknowledge that extending by an extra hour because operationally there was a problem was the right thing to do – IRRESPECTIVE of who would stand to gain.
You cannot profess to be democratic and at the same time object to the extension.
@Albert Farrugia – leaving aside the point well made by Robert A (but democracry for MLP elves only extends as far as voting MLP, Robert) it was the MLP that asked for the extension. But don’t let that stop you luxuriating in your paranoia, please. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that someone, somewhere, isn’t out to get you.
@Albert Farrugia
Come on just another a couple of more creative stories and MLP will have enough evidence to counter the wafer-thin majority the PN managed to obtain through rigging the election.
We had inspector anglu with his drug addicts and alcoholics bought votes, then varist and sant’s voters from abroad that were constitutionally inlegible to vote, and now the report’s allegation that Michael Falzon let voting go on so that the voters from abroad woul be able to vote, careful on double counting on the last two.
I think soon you will have enough proof to start Malta’s own ‘red’, or whatever colour you use these days, revolution.
The question remains. Why, WHY were 15 hours not enough? I do not believe the election was won or lost in that hour. But the intention of those who asked for it I want to know. Who wanted to gain by this? And what? Everyone knows that polling stations remain open till 10PM, but that anyone in the queue will vote, regardless of how late it is. Then why did someone want to get another hour in which he might get our more voters?
In this country we have to begin asking the detailed questions.
@Robert A
Once agan, the law gives the right to anyone standing in the queue at 10 PM to vote. There was NO LOGICAL reason for an extension of an hour. All voters in Malta know that they have till 10PM to get to the polling station. Those, that is, who intend to vote. Those that needed a lot of phonecalls and pestering, maybe not!
@Albert Farrugia – f’gieh kemm hemm, what difference does it make whether people voted after 10pm or before 10pm? The only point you should be looking at is that they had a valid voting document and they voted. Your line of thinking is this: “Iz-zift! They didn’t manage to close the doors quickly enough to stop them getting in.”
Well, chill out guys, the PN won the election.
Now give Marie Benoit’s column a read. If it was not so pathetic it would be hilarious.
Min fejn iggibhom ? Hallina Marie, trid?
@Daphne
Well, yes it does makes a difference. Imagine students sitting for a three hour exam, 9AM to 12PM. One student, though, is allowed to continue writing till 1230PM. What would the other students’ reaction be? At the very least, they will demand a reason. They will want to know why was this one person allowed extra-time, as it were.
Further, when a public call for tenders is issued, there is always a closing date and time. We know the uproar that would ensue were it to transpire that an offer had been handed in just FIVE minutes after the tender closes!
This is all a matter of transparency. Yes. We ordinary citizens want to know exactly why was it deemd necessary to extend voting by one hour all over Malta and Gozo.
And the same goes for the rikorsi. Little by little its transpiring that, yes, people voted who did not really have the right to, according to our laws. The MLP was simply wrong not to take the rikorsi to court, as has been the practice in Malta for ever. And, ironically, it was the much-maligned Jason who apparently was responsible for this, determined as he was to give a “new image” to Labour!
This is all about the rule of law. If the law as it is stipulates residence as a requisite, then this should be respected. Then why have laws? Are we becoming a nation where we pick and chooose which laws to adhere to?
@Albert Farrugia
“Imagine students sitting for a three hour exam, 9AM to 12PM. One student, though, is allowed to continue writing till 1230PM. What would the other students’ reaction be?”
First off, thats a bad example. Secondly you’re wrong, it wasn’t “one student” who was allowed to continue. Every “student” from both sides had the option to go in the extended hour.
The doors weren’t closed for Labour supporters, so what’s your problem exactly?
What’s wrong with giving the people more time to vote and what the hell does the decision have to do with transparency?
I just hate the way brain-washed people like you absorb these buzz-words from your masters and throw them around in what ever you say, in whatever context, like they actually mean something.
@Robert A – This was the first time that we had a National Election and the LC elections at the same time (the previous time it was the LC and European Elections – a much easier voting document).
On another note – DOCTOR Joseph Muscat has just canceled (sic) the endorsement of other MEPs for his candidature. What a joke – it is as if one says publicly that one have received the best marks but that one does not want to make this known publicly.
LOL LOL
@Albert Farrugia; @Uncle Fester
You just don’t get it do you? The PN is the only party that was democratically elected to govern our country for the next five years? The reason – more people wanted the PN to govern Malta than the MLP. Simple! Getit?
Learn to live with it and try to get someone who will win you an election not someone in the same mould as those that lost you the election.
The chip gets bigger not smaller!
@Albert Farrugia – terrible comparison, as M pointed out. The doors were open to all, and not just to the chosen few. As for comparing voting in an election with a test of abilities or a tender offer….
If the 5 contestants believe in freedom of speech and expression they should all agree to appear on Xarabank and show us and the delegates what they are worth – no matter what – the commission wont disqualify all 5 from the contest.
@Albert Farrugia
If you think you deserve to be in power because the polling booths in some districts could not cope with the volume of voters – and I know people who had already spent an hour queuing up in Valletta but had given up and went back in the evening – then you really are a very pathetic and sad lot!!!
People like you will never understand why people like us (and yes we probably DO have different DNA) want to throw up every time you use the word democracy.
To you democracy is just another convenient term that impresses. Like so much about the MLP it is all about gloss and never about substance!
I insist on the point that the one hour extension smacks of irregularity. The Elections Act lays down specifically in Art. 65(2) that “Voting…shall start at 7AM and shall close at 10PM.” It then states that every voter “who at the close of time of voting is present in a polling place (…) shall be entitled (…) to vote”. Regarding extension of voting time, the Commission may grant this if it is “satisfied that the time allowed for voting has been, or will be, for reasons beyong their control, reduced at all or in any one or more of the (voting)places…” In this case the Commission may “extend the time fixed for the poll at such polling place or places…”
Nowhere does the law mention queues as a reason for extending voting time, for the simple reason that anyone in a queue will be allowed to vote, however long this might take. And no-one mentioned any other reason that the voting time was extended, apart from queues.
The law only allows the Commision to extend voting time if for some reason voting in a polling place cannot be kept open for 15 hours (7AM till 10PM). And this, for reasons BEYOND ITS CONTROL, which presumably excludes administrative shortcomings. And notice also that the Commission has to be SATISFIED that a problem exists. Which means that it will be reacting to demands by interested parties, who have to give it sound arguments.
Therefore one might even raise the argument that the extension was illegal. The situation is not any better, indeed much more worying, had it to transpire that the political parties agreed to this. And were the other parties consulted? Apart from the two main ones? If this is allowed to be forgotten then really rule of law in this country is really a farce. This is not a “small matter”. And it has nothing to do with who won the elections or lost them. Civil liberties are eroded in very small, almost unnoticeable steps. And if this happened by agreement between the political parties, it is a sad situation indeed. In any case, how was agreement reached? What did the parties agree on? These are question which would be asked strongly in other democracies.
And only those who are brainwashed, dear M@, or those who have an interest in the status quo, do not see this.
[Moderator – I feel as though I am entering a parallel universe where allowing more people to vote is considered an erosion of civil liberties.]
It is truer by the day that at the Mile End ma jikbrux fjuri…but in Maghtab yes! It seems that Labour does not learn from past mistakes. Does anyone believe that things will change with a new leader? I seriously doubt. With Joe as Mexxej, Labour will invest thousands of Euros in cosmeting itself up…but the people will remain who they are. In maltese we have the proverb…”Hanzir taqtghalu dembu hanzir jibqa”. Daphne you are right to doubt and comment.
@Moderator
You misinterpret the point I am trying to make. Yes, I believe that if an agreement between political parties (if this is what happened in this case)leads to a law being abused, ignored or twistes, I as an ordinary citizen feel that my rights are being abused.
Still the question remains. WHY was this hour added? Queues? The law excludes that as a reason very clearly. Then what? During the day all the stations were telling us that “l-andament sejjer tajjeb”, “l-andament hu kontinwu”, “l-andament” this and “l-andament” that. No floods. No electricity cuts. Which might have been “reasons beyond the Commission’s control” and which would have justified the extra hour.
Then what was it?
[Moderator – Maybe it was a Jewish conspiracy.]
@T. Pace (“Now give Marie Benoit’s column a read. If it was not so pathetic it would be hilarious.
Min fejn iggibhom ?”)
Ahjar ma’ nghidlekx minn fejn, ghax ir-risposta tkun daqxejn pastaza biex tidher hawnekk! (Bilhaqq, kemm inti “fan” kbir ta’ dik il-Benoit, hux, indunajt.) U ghadhekk qatt ma’ rajta liebsa bl-istilettos bojod – u fix-xitwa! Ta’ sittin sena’ l-fuq, ukoll! Diq zgur tad-dahk, biex ma’ nghidlekx kellm’ohra.
Lejber paranioa has turned itself in lejber mania here! Lol