Replay but Seriously

The Malta Independent on Sunday



Unless the referendum result gives a large absolute majority to one of the opposing blocks, i.e. Yes vs. the rest, it could be open to many interpretations.

Being of a consultative nature and offering no executive solution, the real value of the referendum result is more on the impact, if any, it will have on the general election which is now widely expected to follow in a matter of months if not weeks.

My major pre-occupation today is not on the validity of such possible interpretations. It is more on the possibility that both camps will declare themselves as the winners and we could have two large crowd masses celebrating within walking distance of each other, what` ought to be a mutually exclusive victory.

`It is more on the possibility that both camps will declare themselves as the winners and we could have two large crowd masses celebrating within walking distance of each other, what` ought to be a mutually exclusive victory.` Having missed the real feeling of carnival due the referendum campaign heat, it would not be bad if for once a political decision would bring joy to both opposing camps. But I strongly appeal to forces of law and order to take all necessary precautions to ensure that celebrations remain what they are supposed to be and not allowed to get out of hand.

With two crowd masses celebrating within walking distance of each other (the two party headquarters are, as the crow flies, within a hundred metres of each other) it would not be at all amiss if both parties were to co-operate with the forces of law and order to arrange to hold their celebrations in different places keeping the area of the two headquarters as a no-go zone except for the party executives.

Having established my pre-occupation and given fair warning for precautions to be taken to avoid the need of cures, one might just as well ask who is going to interpret the results and on what basis`

The government will interpret the results as the percentage of the Yes vote of the total valid votes cast. On this basis there should be no doubt that once the Opposition has chosen to split its votes on three possibilities rather than concentrate on a single No option, the Yes votes would outnumber the No votes.

The opposition will interpret the result as the percentage of the Yes votes of the total number of entitled voters being the number of voters on the registers less the number of those deceased till the day before the referendum.

So it is quite possible that the Yes vote will get a majority on the basis of the first interpretation but a minority on the basis of the second interpretation which would award the majority to the three option votes of the No camp.

`So it is quite possible that the Yes vote will get a majority on the basis of the first interpretation but a minority on the basis of the second interpretation which would award the majority to the three option votes of the No camp.` In such a situation we will obviously hear arguments whether it is right to include non-voters within the ranks of the No camp once there is no-way of knowing whether, like myself, the voter abstained purposely or through sheer inability or nonchalance.

Rather than waste energies on rhetoric interpretations it would be more practical for both parties to draw whatever conclusion they wish from the result and give the opportunity for the electorate to express its definite view in an early election which would give executive authority for the elected government to carry out its programme.

However I must register my condemnation and disgust at the democratically insulting way this referendum was conducted. We have made ourselves the laughing stock among foreign journalists who were here to report the proceedings and gain a first-hand experience of the unlevelled playing field that prevailed throughout the campaign.

Chief culprit of this was MIC who funded with public money insisted on making a mickey-mouse of itself by presenting only and consistently the positive side of the argument.

Just consider the impact on the cost of living of EU membership. Whilst noting in bright colours the positive effects of price reductions through the removal of agricultural levies, collectively with an impact of some Lm8 million, MIC glosses over the impact of the introduction of some Lm 25 million new levies on basic food items which we have to import from the EU at higher prices, simply stating that these would be subsidised by government and partly by the EU.

MIC places little emphasis that the government is thus taking on collectively some Lm30 million new obligations to finance such subsidies which will have to come from our taxes. As if the government and the people, as consumers, are living on different planets.

Decisions like joining the EU cannot democratically be taken by an electorate deprived of time and space to reflect what it is really deciding about, brainwashed with publicly funded partial information.

I am looking-forward for a serious re-play.