As for treating foreigners residing in Malta in a discriminatory way, when they are subject to the same taxes, this could almost qualify for the label “racist”.

It is natural that there is apathy both on the part of the voter, who tends to be as parochial as the parties that echo his thoughts.

Many just won’t vote in their adopted country. It is also natural that people do not know about their right to vote. This is due to the reluctance of the EU to spend on advertising.

The parties are equally reluctant because blowing the nationalist trumpet is much easier. Look at our tough guys Muscat and Sant for examples of nationalistic drivel. It works.

The Founding Fathers had thought they could first use economic interdependence as a platform for integration but in hindsight admitted that they should have started with highlighting to Europeans that they did indeed have a shared history.

Who says he or she voted Labour? And what if they did?

You’re reading things that were not written.

None of the nationals here ever mentioned anything. Nor were there any notices in the media about entitlement to vote, let alone how to go about it.

None of the electoral propaganda in whatever medium was in anything but the local language and of course same goes for the ballots and instructions at the polling stations.

It is regrettable in this day and age that foreigners’ particular needs tend to be ignored but it is an inevitable part of life, I’m afraid.

Well, by definition, foreigners who emigrate to Malta do so because they want something their home country hasn’t provided them with. For some it’s a nice job opportunity, marriage, or weather that’s not dreary, day in day out. For others it’s a chance at a ‘normal’ life free from all kinds of horror.

So it’s ironic to see a presumed member of the former group being swayed to vote for a political party on the basis of “non discriminatory bus fares and electricity tariffs” and a couple of falsely flattering English pamphlets, when the same political party is so quick to discriminate against other immigrants with far greater and more pressing needs.

I’m just pointing that out.

He doesn’t come across that way at all.

If you are really interested in participating in the democratic process, party propaganda is the last thing you need. It’s biased and unreliable anyway.

Follow the issues in the English-language media and make up your mind based on a mature evaluation that takes into account the greater good, including the good of foreigners like you who, unlike you, could not vote because they arrived from Africa in a rickety boat.

‘….Giving a rundown of the percentage of signatures collected according to various age brackets, Mr Perici Calascione said that the majority of signatories were persons aged between 16 and 28 (20.89 per cent) and the least signatories being those aged between 14 and 18….’

How does that work?

‘…He said that the petition will be presented to parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon, a hunter himself, on Monday, who in turn will present the petition in parliament….’

I take it we won’t know the number of signatures then. How nice of Perici Calascione to define Falzon. Taghna Lkoll, or is that kollu taghna?

This one however takes the biscuit,

‘….When asked what he expected from legislators, Mr Perici Calascione said that the FKNK is in no way against a democratic referendum however pointed out that if parliament failed to take into consideration the number of signatures collected and did not discuss the issue, it would be conveying a message that it is not interested in what the thousands of people have to say…’

So,

it’s only democratic to listen to what people have to say when a petition to block a referendum, where these same people get to vote, blocks the same referendum.

Wow.