Last weekend saw the first referendum forced onto the Maltese politics requesting the abrogation of the derogation allowing spring hunting of turtle doves and quails. A coalition of NGOs and the Maltese Green Party had collected more than the required 10% signatures required by law to ask for the referendum. This happened to be a result of the constant failure of both leading political parties to regulate spring hunting according to the European birds directive. The referendum took place together with the local council elections in half of the local councils.
We all know the results now: almost half of the electorate voted in favour of the abolishing of the derogation, in clear defiance of the political established class. The Leader of the Labour Party repeated during several public meetings his clear approval of the derogation, as did the leader of the opposition. It seems clear that the Labour electorate follow instructions from their Leader, regardless what their conscience or heart tells them. It is a herculean task to educate followers, to educate them to build their own mind and judgement.
Head office of the PL mayor around 150m away from the polling station in Qormii
The results of the local council elections, although not really a surprise to me, showed an unchanged vote pattern: the Labour Party and the PN obtained 98% of the votes. Despite the fact that almost 50% voted against the directives of these two parties during the referendum, the electorate still voted for the two parties during the local councils, supporting their “electoral” program, basically agreeing on the status quo: the continuation of the rape of our environment, agreeing on the political non-transparency and accountability and finally the corruption. It also showed once again that cross voting, for example in favour of the Green Party, is almost insistent. One could seriously question whether the electorate actually understands the Maltese voting system….
It seems also evident that the Green Party can not catalyze votes, and this for many reasons: since its constituency, the Green Party always fought for the adoption of a party financing law, this has been promised by all sorts of Governments, so far it has not seen the day.
It is a fact that in today’s society, public relations and communication are vital for the “marketing” of ideas. While the Labour Party and the PN benefit from a yearly public grant of 100,000€, run media companies and kazins, the Green Party only has the few membership fees and donations as unique financial resource. In addition to this, the Labour Party and PN are not even financially accountable: a global financial picture of their accounts is not publicly available, the resolution of outstanding Enemalta bills seems to be forgotten…
During the local council elections, one could realise the disadvantage the Green Party was facing without not been able to air its program, not been able to hold public political meetings in all town or fill the mailboxes with electoral trash. Actually the brain washing continued during election day when one could witness head quarters with flags setup in the vicinity of the polling stations, with the candidates and followers spending their time next to it.
What is the way forward? Some NGOs and public persons are calling now the electorate who voted against the derogation to join their ranks: while everyone certainly appreciate, support and understand the role of NGOs in our society, changes to our society can only be achieved at the polling stations: NGOs are pressure groups. Only a political party can change laws, regulate budgets, govern. The Green Party can be the choice if the electorate brings its support: it lacks mainly of human resources to growth and establish itself as the real voice of opposition.
PS: just to be clear, this opinion is my personal opinion and not of the Maltese Green Party.
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