A sad day for democracy

While expressing my satisfaction at seeing almost 91 per cent of the electorate come out of their homes and cast their preference in last Saturday's national referendum, I am also extremely saddened at the way our democracy is being made fun of by an opposition party that cannot play a fair game.

For the first time in history, the well-defined rules of democracy are being twisted and shaped into anything that suites the Labour Party's intentions. This is indeed an uncomfortable situation, whereby the same people who are claiming that our country is going to lose its sovereignty and are fighting for it at all costs, cannot accept that a majority of people have voted yes in the last referendum and are wrongly and misleadingly telling its supporters that 52 per cent of the Maltese electorate are in favour of "partnership".

This is absolutely incorrect, goes against all forms of logic (except maybe fuzzy logic) and defies established scientific principles. It is a great embarrassment knowing that our European fellows are aware of such a situation. Is it possible that so many people still find the leaders of the Labour Party credible in what they say? I do not know whether to laugh or cry at this. What next? Shall we start saying the moon is made of cheese now?

But let us stop for a minute and ponder about what Alfred Sant is claiming. Basically his argument is simple. Let us just add with the no votes all the invalid votes and the uncast votes, in the light of the explicit instructions given to his followers: vote no, invalidate your vote or do not vote at all. So, naturally, his logic states that all those who did not vote or invalidated their vote are in favour of his "partnership" vision. That is very easy to claim, is it not?

Is he forgetting to deduct from his figures (i) people who for some reason or another could not physically vote although registered to vote and (ii) a percentage of people who never vote in the first place. So let us be conservative and give him the benefit of the doubt (although he does not seem to be doubtful of his opinion at all). Let us temporarily assume that he is right and that only four per cent of those eligible to vote abstain, as usually happens in general elections.

This means that 96 per cent of the voters have a concrete opinion, either in favour of membership or against it. Let us assume that those who did not vote in the referendum or who invalidated their votes are really in favour of "partnership", and give him again the benefit of the doubt. Then out of 96 per cent of the eligible voters (totalling 297,881), 285,966 persons cast their vote. Now the people voting yes amounted to 143,017, and this is 50.01 per cent of the total votes!

So Dr Sant still cannot claim that the real majority of people are in favour of "partnership" (what about those then who are against both options and have in mind something else?).

Unfortunately, we have no choice but to bind an important foreign policy issue with the general election. This is no good news for the Labour Party. In my opinion, I think he will lose votes in this manner: (i) Labour supporters in favour of EU will be voting for the Nationalist Party and (ii) Alternattiva Demokratika will lose supporters to the Nationalists since this is the safest way for them to guarantee that their vote is respected (everyone knows that in this issue a vote to AD would be futile since they have never managed to get a seat till now).

Speculatively, there are few Nationalist supporters who will be voting Labour, but this is a personal opinion based on personal observation rather than absolute certainty.

If my predictions are correct, there is great trouble down the line for the Labour Party. Dr Sant should stop insulting our intelligence and playing the part of the victim. While it is true that there were more funds to support the yes campaign than for the no propaganda, it is also true that we have a mind of our own and most of us have based their decision on what is true and well-known.

Let us not blow this issue out of proportion and proceed to confirm the democratic choice of the people in the coming general election.