You’ll make history, all right, with one seat in parliament and Joseph Muscat in government ALONE
Michael Briguglio of AD has sent out this email:
Dear friends,
Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party is doing well and our ratings are getting stronger every week. We stand a real chance to elect AD into parliament. If we do, Malta’s political landscape will change, for the better, forever.
We need your help. No, not your money! We are asking you to support us publicly, with friends, with family, with collegues, on face-book, in emails. Let’s show that yes, it is possible that there are people who want to move away from the tribalism that has taken over this country, yes, it is possible that there are people who think with their own mind, and yes, you are not alone, even if you stand apart!
(…)
Just 100 of you is all it takes. If you talk to 5 who talk to another 5. It will get AD in parliament. And the rest, is history.
Let’s make history! Vote AD.(…)
You’d think people would have learned by now how this works, imma ma tarax. European Parliament elections: 20,000 people or thereabouts vote AD because jahasra they worked so hard for EU membership (tghidli xejn). A huge chunk of ABs and people from Sliema, Swieqi, St Julians, St Andrew’s and so on do so. The PN vote is drained because AD is essentially a tal-pepe outfit and really doesn’t attract Laburisti types at all. The Labour vote is galvanised, doesn’t budge.
The result? The Nationalist Party gets two seats in the European Parliament and Labour, which worked to keep Malta out, gets three. AD got no seat at all. The only thing its efforts at draining votes from the PN served to do was give a third seat to a party that certainly didn’t deserve it.
16 Comments Comment
AD got 5300 votes last MEP election, PN still had 2 seats and the MLP got 4. I am sure those 5300 were to blame as those 20000 were to blame in 2004.
[Daphne – Practising idiocy in public, are we? Thank heavens for your sake that you don’t use your real name. In the 2009 EP elections the problem was exactly the same, but this time Louis Grech and Edward Scicluna took the place of AD. THE EXACT SAME PROFILE OF PEOPLE who had voted AD in the 2004 EP elections this time voted for ‘Louis’ and for ‘Edward’ (ghax puliti u bhalna and it’s not a vote for Labour it’s a vote for Louis and Edward). The result? Well, we saw it. But back then I was one of the few pointing out that a vote for Louis and Edward is a vote for the Labour Party. It took Labour getting four seats and the PN getting just two for them to work it out – “Maaaaa, they got four seats! Il-lallu!” Well, honey, you helped make it happen.]
Idiocy is claiming that Louis Grech was not elected as an MEP in 2004 as you did earlier. Those people who you claim voted for Louis Grech in 2009 would have voted for him in 2004, no? I am sure there is some twist in logic coming up to re-address your erroneous claim.
[Daphne – You have my explanation in a previous comment. No, they ‘would not have’ voted for him in 2004 just because they voted for him in 2009. Politics and political sentiment and group motivation are not static. In 2004, that particular vote went to AD. In 2009, it went to Louis Grech and Edward Scicluna personally, rather than ‘Labour’.]
Boohoo!
Those intending to vote AD surely must know that their vote will help Labour to get a majority while AD will STILL be left out in the cold. I am sure Briguglio understands this unless he is blinded by the ambition to try at all costs (without succedding) ingetting his seat in Parliament.
I would say that although he knows this, he wants to help PL by diminishing the PN votes.
The few people who really believe in AD beliefs and policies are not enough to win them a parliamentary seat.
The other votes they may get are all obtained out of spite or in revenge to the PN. Therefore, even if elected, AD have nothing to brag about.
Does AD realise that with a Labour government they risk the nationwide percentage minimum for representation?
No wonder Cassola was so offended at Labour’s pepe’.
The PN will only oblige.
.
The PN vote is drained because AD is essentially a tal-pepe outfit and really doesn’t attract Laburisti types at all.
What type of sociological study did you conduct to come up with such conclusions? Oh yes I know a study called LABELLING!
[Daphne – Just take a look at the polls, Pumbaa. That’s all you need to see. Oh, I know what I am talking about for the simple and obvious reason that these are ‘my people’, so to speak. I live among them and grew up among them and it’s my network. The day I go to the market, as I often do, and hear traders and customers talking about AD is the day I’ll be impressed at the way AD has managed to communicate with anyone other than AB types of my age and younger.]
With one seat in parliament AD could be influential yes, perhaps less influential than the holy duopoly but it’s a start and AD’s influence is needed in this day and age!
[Daphne – What is AD going to influence with one seat? Go on, tell me. What? The only way a single seat can influence anything at all is if that seat holds the balance of power. And as we have seen VERY GRAPHICALLY ILLUSTRATED over the last few years by Jeffrey PO and Franco Debono, that is not democratic but its precise opposite. It allows for dangerous games to be played with serious consequences for the country and absolute disregard for the wishes of the majority.]
Hux tal-pepe outfit!! Jixtiequ.
Alternative outfit. Not quite pepe, but intellectual-alternative. Think of them as Literate Labour.
Take the last election, if AD managed a seat in parliament at the expeses of the PN the following would have been the result:
MLP 34 seats
PN 30 seats
AD 1 seat.
MLP would have governed comfortably even if they would have won the election with a handful of votes. The same can happen this time if AD are elected.
The direct proportionality clause, if I’m not mistaken, only comes into force if only 2 parties are elected, so for arguments sake PN might lose a seat in the 10th district to AD but still get more votes than PL and the later are allowed to govern with the above representation in parliament with the districts as they are.
Exactly. You are not mistaken.
Pure speculation, Kram. Just pure – and hardly, but very shakily, founded – speculation, in so far as both occasions are concerned.
Another rather interesting problem is that, if AD does get one seat, and neither PN nor Labour get an absolute majority, there is no ‘corrective mechanism’ dealing with these situations.
This means that if Labour gets 45% and PN get 46%, Labour may still win the maximum number of seats and would consequently be entitled to govern. And it’s 1981 all over again.
If you want a PN government, vote PN.
If you don’t want a Labour government, vote PN.
If you want an AD government, dream on.
If you want AD to have a seat in parliament, persuade a Labour friend to vote for AD.
Its better to lose votes to AD than to Labour!
[Daphne – Oh, only marginally. The outcome will be pretty much the same: a Labour government.]