They’ve shrunk the ballot sheets because there wasn’t enough paper to cope with the crisis
Published:
May 11, 2014 at 8:55am
The Cyrus Engerer reprint emergency has led to the ballot sheets being shrunk to fit in the required number on far less paper. Designers have been juggling around trying to make the fit.
The Sunday Times reports this morning that the security paper supply in stock isn’t sufficient to have the ballots of the usual size. And you can’t import paper in bulk overnight.
Thirty employees at the Government Printing Press will now spend Mothers’ Day printing the new ballots in a process that will take 17 hours.
The reprint will cost Eur150,000.
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And this when a simple overprint to cover Engerer’s line would have sufficed at a fraction of the cost. We are only being given the cost of the reprint at €150,000 to which one has to add that of the paper.
Add also the overtime costs.
Possibli Keith tal-Kasco ma setax jaqdihom? What a waste of money and resources and this could have been avoided had the PL not accepted Cyrus’s candidature knowing full well that there were pending court proceedings against him. This confirms that PL is a skip.
Ghalhekk regaw printjaw biex juzaw iktar karti u Keith tal-Kasco jakkwista aktar.
There goes my 2 cents saving on petrol.
Actually it’s going to cost us roughly 35c per voter, not counting the cost of paper.
They should have overprinted the guilty criminal’s name in poppy red.
They could have printed a palm leaf across his name given his matrydom by conspirators against him and his family.
Well if they managed to fit it, make it legible for everyone and in the process use less paper, it should be made the norm so as to economize on the paper on a regular basis.
But I won’t hold my breath.
Why did they print the original papers (those with Cyrus Engerer on them) so early when they will not be needed before Thursday 15th March for the early “going abroad” voters and it only takes 17 hours to print them ?
” it was purely and simply as a result of a justified complaint from the victim – the Prime Minister probably figured that the best form of defence (even in the face of the indefensible) is to attack. So that is what he did.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140511/editorial/editorial-muscats-soldier-of-steal.518493
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140511/editorial/editorial-muscats-soldier-of-steal.518493
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-05-11/leader/soldier-of-steel-4940300288/
Wow, Joseph Muscat must be really pleased this morning !
Hopefully all the soldiers of steel are made of ‘stainless’ steel.
Couldn’t they have reprocessed the existing ballot papers and crossed/blacked out Engerer’s name? That would have saved the government €150,000 which Jo could have given as a discreet iced bun to Cyrus.
Yes, and remind voters right in the polling booth what a morally corrupt lot they are.
The ballot sheets are cut out of a larger roll. This isn’t a desktop printer where you can feed in your A4 sheets.
But that’s by the by. I’m no jurist, but it seems to me that the closest analogy would be a candidate dying before polling day. In that case, their name isn’t struck off the list, but left there and the votes are counted as usual.
After all, Engerer never withdrew officially.
I forecast a larger win for Labour, through a protest vote in support of Engerer. More Labour-tendency voters will be mobilised, and more of them will vote Labour. You know the sort: Nivvota lill-kandidati Laburisti kollha ha npattilhom talli ppersegwitaw lill-povru Cyrus.
Call me Conchita if I’m wrong.
You may be correct but there’s a revolt within the MLP grassroots I tell you.
Can we stop using the word “grassroots”? It colours the whole debate and misguides political strategy. They’re core voters.
One day I’ll publish a list of Gonzian Buzzwords To Be Banished From Our Vocabulary. It’s very long.
Those who were duped by Joseph Muscat that things would be different are not at all amused, Baxxter.
I know what I’m saying. Pity PN haven’t got someone with more character, more resolve, less petty – this country needs a credible Opposition, for Christ’s sake..and I voted PL.
Naqbel mieghek mija fi-mija bhal ma gara lilna n-Nazzjonalisti b’JPO. U blajna kanna!
That’s a whooping 43 cents per voter (calculated on 350,000, http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140509/local/updated-electoral-commission-decides-for-a-reprint-following-cyrus-engerers-withdrawal-from-election.518354).
At least, we all got a 2 cent reduction in our petrol prices.
Why did they have to take all this trouble?
Didn’t the prime minister declare Cyrus an asset to Labour? He was treated like a martyr and a hero at the last Labour mass meeting. Why exactly is he not contesting?
The hunters were already determined to give him their number 1 vote.
I say send the bill to the Malta Labour Party after all it is because of Joseph Muscat’s lack of judgement that we, the taxpayers, are having to shoulder this extra expense.
I’m worried about one thing in particular: the space where one writes his numbered preference is just about adequate.
If they are shrunk by half, it will be difficult even for me to stay within the line, let alone for some of our elderly population. Will this cause an increase in the number of invalidated votes?
How will counting agents be able to monitor the process if they are unable to see the miniscule numbers?