Beyond our wildest dreams

For ten years of my life I was glad to be a footsoldier in Malta's best political party although its chances of ever overcoming the odds heaped against it seemed impossible. I and hundreds of fellow Greens soldiered on in the knowledge that we were laying the foundations for those who would come after us.

Several times during those first ten years we clung to the wreckage after electoral tempests knowing that if we let go, the hope of a third party breaking the mould of Maltese politics would be lost for decades.

We soldiered on regardless keeping the dream alive for ourselves and for the rest of the country, many of us: those of us for whom the dream was too precious to kill. Some of us let the cold wind of hopelessness overcome them and were lost.

In the last weeks of 1999 I was asked to lead the party I had co-founded and which I had served through thick and thin. I took on a mandate as ambitious as any Alternattiva Demokratika ever gave: to reform, restructure, reorganise the Greens and to contest the next general election. I had the help of the best political team in Malta: no greybeards but people with courage, determination and commitment.

The key element in our progress in the past four years has been an early decision to define a clear strategy regardless of distractions and to adopt tactics that never compromise our principles: no U-turns, no gimmicks, just straight talking.

In the previous ten years the greatest distraction has been electoral reform: AD whining about the obvious unfairness of the system, our rivals waffling about change and blessed nothing happening. We decided that we had no more time to spare for whinging, we would take on the beast as it is and win.

We are convinced that we can and everybody who wants to ensure EU membership for Malta knows that we must win. This is about AD's plan for a better democracy in Malta.

There are many possible scenarios following the next election. The one that AD has sought to avoid is PN XX% MLP XXX% AD X%: AD unrepresented, PN in Opposition, MLP in government, referendum result denied, EU membership postponed to beyond our lifetimes.

Two years ago we could not begin to guess what the referendum result would be nor that an election would follow immediately after. Still, we considered all possible contingencies and planned to contain them.

We decided that dissipating our resources across the country would never work. Focussing on a small number of target districts was mandatory. While standing for election in all electoral districts to allow Greens everywhere to make their voice heard, we could achieve representation of them only if we aimed at the heart of the system at its weakest points.

We chose the tenth district (Sliema, St Julian's, Pembroke, Swieqi and Ta' l-Ibrag) because it has consistently returned the best results for AD since 1992. We chose the eighth district (Lija, Balzan, Birkirkara and L-Iklin) because that is where the other party leaders contest and produce an enormous surplus of No. 2 preference votes.

In 2002 we returned to the local council elections fielding candidates in four localities. It was no accident that two of them stood in Pembroke and St Julian's. We did well: 9.3% in Pembroke and 7.4% in St Julian's. Visiting people in their homes made all the difference. Our average for 2002 was 5.6%.

The 2003 local council elections were a continuation of the same strategy, with improvements. It was no fluke that our average went up to 6.1% nor that we elected councillors in Sliema, Lija and Birkirkara, all in our target districts.

In the smaller localities, where our house visit rate can match that of our rivals, our results were consistently brilliant: Pembroke in 2002 gave us 9.3%, Lija in 2003 gave us 9.9% in first preferences with election following at 19.4%.

It is no small comfort to us at this time that the strategy we have adopted for AD today serves a major need for the country. Getting AD into Parliament ensures a confirmation of the referendum win for the Yes to EU camp.

Our concern over this issue has been such that we considered and proposed an alliance with the other party proposing EU membership regardless of our differences on other issues. It was an emergency similar to that caused by the electoral success of Le Pen in the French presidential elections when socialists asked their electorate to hold their nose and vote for their archrival in order to avert a danger to democracy.

In the Maltese political context proposing an alliance was probably ahead of its time. The PN couldn't accept, not even our unconditional offer. Our own support quailed at the extravagance of taking on the liability that is the PN in the slander match with the MLP. The alliance did not happen, but not for lack of trying by AD. I stand by the choice and my people can have my head at the next AGM if they disapprove.

We have worked for representation in parliament in order to force the other parties into consensus politics and away from permanent confrontation. That we attempted the same ahead of parliamentary representation should shock nobody.

In the end the PN aborted the issue by filing nominations on the first available day, making a formal alliance impossible. We were left with second best and worst possible choices. To contest alone or not to contest at all. We weighed all options.

Not contesting was quickly eliminated. If the PN don't even dare form an alliance, nobody can ask us to commit suicide. Eliminating AD from the election, apart from being a betrayal of the hopes of its core supporters, gave no guarantee of success anyway. Our voters could justifiably take offence at being constrained to vote and simply refuse to vote.

If there is no confirmation of the referendum result in the elections, democracy is at risk, the possibility of EU membership becomes a bitter memory and our economy is adrift. Why kill the hope of a third party into the bargain?

We will contest the elections. Thank God we had framed an appropriate strategy for ourselves. Today it serves the country's need.

We shall field candidates in every electoral district as we have always done. Every Green in every part of Malta and Gozo will have the chance to vote for the party he or she wants rather than one despised to spite another he or she fears.

Every Green vote will be brought to the balance on the side of EU membership by following through on the strategy we adopted four years ago.

Focussing on the eighth and tenth electoral districts, our resources can have maximum effect. Achieving anything close to our local council election results in first preference votes means that we will stay in the running to collect a mass of second count votes which will elect an AD candidate in exactly the same way that the other parties candidates are elected.

In the tenth district ferocious competition requires a higher percentage of No. 1 votes in order to keep AD ahead of the pack. There is no safety in just voting No. 2 AD. Only those who cannot, absolutely cannot, bring themselves to vote No. 1 AD should allow themselves to vote No. 2 for AD. Everybody who wants EU membership, Green or not, must vote at least No. 2 for AD. To give a No. 2 vote full effect the No. 1 must be given the weakest candidate in the preferred No. 1 list. It gets to AD faster.

It is more important to vote Green in the tenth district than it is to vote any other party. Every tenth district vote to AD is multiplied by the nationwide Green vote which it brings to the reckoning. If AD has 1,000 votes in the tenth district and 4,000 votes nationwide, every tenth district vote is effectively worth five votes. No. 2 preferences are those that complete an election and in these circumstances should not be wasted on any other candidate.

In the eighth district the PN and MLP leaders bag the bulk of the vote on the first count 7-8,000 votes. Their surpluses are the first to be redistributed among the other candidates. All pro-EU voters voting another party leader first should ensure they vote No. 2 AD. It involves absolutely no risk and will ensure election of an AD candidate. Our people are out there right now meeting voters in their homes and making this possible.

Judging by the referendum result it seems unlikely that the PN can achieve over 50 per cent of the vote on its own nor more votes that the MLP, if neither pass the 50 per cent mark. In this event, unless AD is elected to Parlaiment, the MLP will govern and smash the EU membership option the country has won and chosen in the referendum. If the PN make it past 50 per cent, great. It seems unlikely without taking the AD vote into account.

The Constitution leaves only one other possible option: the election of a third party to Parliament. In this event all the 50% +1 rules as amended to apply to a relative majority in a two-party scenario, are suspended. The highly probable resulting scenario is PN 33 seats, AD 1, MLP 31. If AD is elected from two districts PN 32, AD 2, MLP 31.

This is what AD and all those who want to make sure of EU membership must achieve in this election. There is no room and no time for complacency: everybody must pull all the stops to make it happen. Every other option increases the risk. Banking on the PN alone is Russian roulette and could waste well over 140,000 votes.

If we win, we all win, win, win: we avert the danger to democracy, we confirm EU membership and the real pluralism the country deserves. The elections in five years' time will be contested by three parties each expecting to be minorities and behaving as decently, rationally and responsibly as AD.

Today Alternattiva Demokratika the Green Party is universally acknowledged to have achieved a standing far beyond the wildest dreams of anyone in 1999. Our overall result in the elections is irrelevant to the issue. Everybody has understood that the electoral system is a dangerous travesty of democracy.

Today we share a challenge with a very significant majority of Maltese and Gozitans who voted Yes in the EU referendum to gain representation for our support, a respectable democracy for everyone, and EU membership for us all.

Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party (www.alternattiva. org.mt)