UPDATED YET AGAIN: Two weeks away from polling day and the ballot sheets have to be printed again for every electoral district
UPDATE AT 7.25PM: The Electoral Commission has now decided to print the electoral ballot sheets again because of the high risk that electors will put a number in Cyrus Engerer’s box regardless and render their vote invalid.
Members of the Electoral Commission have visited the Government Printing Press to check availability of paper. This new print run will cost Eur150,000.
The decision was taken despite the law being clear on the matter that candidates cannot be removed from the list once the ballot sheets have been printed.
At a rowdy meeting of the Electoral Commission, the decision to reprint was taken on the basis of that part of the law which says that the ballot sheets cannot be printed later than 13 days before an election. Tomorrow is 14 days before the election, so presumably they’re going to be printed through the night and throughout tomorrow (I have no idea what the Government Printing Press capacity is).
It was inevitable this would happen. The Labour Party does not have enough time to explain to its core supporters that they should not vote for Cyrus Engerer even though his name is on their ballot sheet, that they should on no account put a number in the box next to his name. There would probably have been a large number of votes rendered invalid by people voting for Engerer regardless, either because they don’t know what’s going on or ‘biex nisfidawom u naghtuh sapport miskin’.
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UPDATED: The Electoral Commission can’t print the ballot sheets again at this late stage because the electoral law precludes it. Engerer’s name is going to have to stay on the sheet.
This presents something of a mammoth communication problem: how is the Labour Party going to communicate to all its supporters the fact that even though his name is on the ballot sheet, he’s not a candidate?
“Jien ivvutajt ghal Cyrus biex nisfidom…”
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The Electoral Commission, which was all sorted for the upcoming European Parliament election on 24 May, this morning had to begin the process of printing ballot sheets again for the whole of Malta.
This is because Cyrus Engerer has dropped out of the race and his name has to be taken off the candidate list.
When a candidate pulls out or is removed in a general election campaign, the problem is not so big because the only ballot sheets that have to be printed again are the ones for that particular district.
But in a European Parliament election, all districts get exactly the same list of candidates and the same ballot sheet.
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Phew. Jason managed to slip in his pansies just time.
Had the Labour Party not accepted Engerer as an MEP candidate as he had an ongoing court case, all this could have been avoided. The PL has no foresight whatsoever..
Issa dawn mhux ħela ta’ flus u ta’ karti? Imbagħad biex ngħinu u nsalvaw l-ambjent bbumbardjati biex ma nipprintjawx bl-addoċċ ħalli ma naħlux karti eċċ. Kieku ma ħariġx mill-ewwel ma kienx jiffrankalna dan kollu, ħela ta’ ħin, ħela ta’ riżorsi ( jekk ma jridux jagħmlu l-overtime l-ħaddiema issa biex ilaħħqu jipprintjaw il-karti).Evviva l-ħela.
The paper supplier must be making a fortune.
Kasco?
And guess who the paper supplier is? Keith Schembri tal-Kasco, I suppose.
Keith ‘Kasco’ Schembri?
The printing press must be happy.
U l-izpejjez ‘Taghna Lkoll’
Yes ‘thanks’ to the ‘star candidate’ Cyrus Engerer.
So will marking a vote for Cyrus on the ballot sheet invalidate it?
Is a vote for him transferable?
I am suspecting that it will be valid, but obviously he’ll be unelectable due to him dropping out.
What I am afraid of is the possibility of the situation allowing a protest vote.
What happens to a ballot sheet that includes a preference vote for Engerer? Is that treated as an invalidated vote? Or is it taken into consideration up to the particular preference given to him?
History repeats itself. First we had an MEP who made a fraud out of airline tickets, now if Cyrus stood for election and was elected we would have had an MEP charged with internet pornography. Everything is possible from the PL.
This is one of those situations that haven’t been allowed for because ‘that would never happen’.
Perhaps the paper for all this printing is coming from a particular paper company we all know to whom it belongs…..
So does this mean that people are going to vote for Cyrus and have their vote thrown away?
I wonder who is the paper supplier. Might it be Kasco?
Froga wara l-ohra.
Imnalla ghandna l-pansies.
How much exactly is this going to cost us?
They can send Franco Debono in his place.
I’ve given up trying to analyse this mess. Now I’m just wearing my 3D glasses and munching on the popcorn.
Because really.
I mean really.
Will we rush through parliament an amendment to the electoral law? And what would it look like?
To whom do you assign Cyrus’s votes if people tick his name? What if Cyrus is given first preference?
What if someone puts a mark against his name that would otherwise invalidate a vote? What if his name is crossed out?
I’m lovin’ it.
Kasco imports security paper.
And guess who’s going to supply the government?
I wonder if it’s going to be by direct order or tender.
This just gets better and better.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140509/local/electoral-commission-in-urgent-meeting-as-law-states-cyrus-engerers-name-should-stay.518354
Picture, if you can, those urgent meetings, those overweight men in badly-cut suits feverishly thumbing through the massive tomes of the Laws of Malta, trying to understand that terrible incomprehensible Maltitalian legalese.
Then watch as the biro fails and the biscuit crumbs get in between the pages. Do we need to call the Attorney-General? Whose remit is this? Telephones ring frantically, bespectacled civil servants rush from door to door, suddenly the cry: “Haw il-Ministru!” Panic! What shall we do? What can we do? What is the right answer?
Oh Christ, my blood pressure, says one. Oh shit, my angina, says another. No, it’s not l-Onorevoli Ministru, it’s Keith tal-Kasco!
I told you, I’m lovin’ it.
There’s enough material here for three seasons of The West Wing.
http://www.newsbook.com.mt/artikli/2014/5/9/se-jergghu-jigu-stampati-l-poloz-tal-vot-ghal-EU150-000.17814
So if I’m looking at it the right way: The Government has ordered the Electoral Commission to ignore the law and reprint the ballots anyway?
There’s no way the Labour Party can convince its supporters in time to leave out Cyrus Engerer, especially if people have been told to vote for each and every one of their respective party’s candidates.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140509/local/updated-electoral-commission-decides-for-a-reprint-following-cyrus-engerers-withdrawal-from-election.518354
Get Labour to pay for them. They were the ones who allowed him to run on their ticket despite that there was a case pending.
I totally agree with this line of reasoning.
Labour needs to face up to the fact that “foot loose and fancy free” irresponsibility has a cost in real terms.
Their behaviour is reckless all through.
They should foot the bill.
What a country.
Did I hear the word Banana?
[Daphne – You’re the one who voted for this mess, Mr Loporto. None of this would have occurred had the Labour Party not taken him on.]
What a record for the MLP: two high-profile party members found guilty of harrassment in just a year.
What a mess Joseph Muscat got us into.
…e io pago.
Give Cyrus a black permanent marker and have him blacken out his name on the each and every ballot sheet.
Does the 150K bill include the hours of overtime and mano d’opera?
I know I am a perfect idiot as regards printing, but isn’t it possible to overprint the current ballot papers such that the row with Engerer’s name is blacked out?
[Daphne – I believe it wouldn’t be valid anyway.]
Cyrus Engerer should pay for the extra expenses incurred.
And on Eurovision night too…
This is too much. Meet me at the Government Printing Press with two pitchforks, a miniature Green Room and a lynch mob, Ciccio.
Ah, music night.
So that’s why some commenter referred to them as “ballad sheets” on timesofmalta.com today.
I suppose this has never happened before because of the provision disallowing those undergoing a criminal case in court or serving a prison sentence (effective or suspended) from contesting an election.
Thanks to the change in that law by this amateur government we have a situation which could not have happened before and now we pay the pay price.
Media reports state that regulations prohibit candidates from withdrawing their candidature once the ballot papers are printed – which they were when Engerer withdrew, thus the inclusion of Engerer’s name on the ballot paper presents no problem.
Votes numbered against his name would be counted and transferred in the normal way.
In the, now unlikely event that Engerer is then elected, man of principle that he claims he is, Engerer would turn down the EP seat and the candidate with the most votes to his name would take over the seat in Engerer’s stead.
If he had been elected he would have stuck out his middle finger and rode the gravy train to Brussels like any other gentleman soldier of steel would.
Mr. Loporto has the cheek to call the country Banana? Who brought it about? He and the other gullible and bare faced switchers who during the stable Nationalist government years were making a fortune from their respective businesses.
The Electoral Commission is falling over itself to accomodate the Labour Party. Just like the Police Corps, the AFM, the Civil Service, MEPA, PBS and most of the press, it has become thoroughly Taghna Lkoll.
The checks and balances of a normal democracy have been dismantled in just one year.
A single year of the Muscat administration has been almost as toxic to democracy as the first ten of Mintoffianism.