Rosanne Zammit
Falzon blasts 'insolent' report
Michael Falzon, one of the five contenders for the MLP's top post on June 5, yesterday hit out at the party's electoral defeat report saying it unfairly blamed some people, reduced the blame on others, was not true in certain instances and attempted to hide the truth.
Addressing a news conference, a visibly hurt and angry Dr Falzon pointed out that the husband of one of the electoral commission's members regularly wrote against him in several blogs. This member, he said, had been extremely aggressive towards him when he was interviewed.
He refused to name this person saying he was not holding the news conference to attack anyone but in the interest of the party.
He also refused to name officials who, he claimed, were abusing their position within the party and leaking information including the agenda of the party's executive meeting before this was even given to members of the executive.
Dr Falzon warned that although as party leader he would be willing to work with anyone elected by the delegates, as long as they safeguarded the interests of the party, he was not prepared to work with people who leaked information.
He pointed out that although the party was meant to discuss the report last Saturday, once the executive decided that it could be made public, the haste seemed to have disappeared and the discussion was postponed to September.
The report, he said, was published before the party had taken any decisions on it. If it was anyone's intention to put him in bad light, anyone could see where his loyalty lies.
He described as "insolent" a section of the report which accused the party of being lost at the counting hall on election day. The report, he said, could have pointed out that he had stayed on at the counting hall together with the head of the party's electoral office Louis Gatt and party president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi.
He knew the election result by 12.45 p.m. on Sunday but spent until 6 p.m. hoping the system he had created to calculate the result was wrong. It was not.
The report also noted that there were people within the leadership who were too convinced the party would win the election.
"Who?" Dr Falzon asked, pointing out that during the party's last mass meeting before the election, he had appealed to Labourites to vote.
Rather than working on his own personal campaign, he had spent voting day pushing people to vote. "I was always there for the party, even at the counting hall."
While the analysis criticised the party for being too negative, it failed to say who had been negative.
On the decision to extend the voting time by an hour, which the report says was taken by Dr Falzon without consultation, he said he could not have consulted anyone on a decision which had already been taken "by others". The Labour Party did not have a vote in the Electoral Commission and he had not been asked for his opinion.
He noted that when speaking about the extension, the report ended with an incomplete sentence: "While that the extra hour had not resulted in any additional votes for the MLP in Żejtun..."
"When was the sentence edited? How did it continue? Was the whole report edited?" he asked.
On the report's reference to cliques, he said he would never be part of them and it was only those who were not sure of themselves who needed such cliques.
He apologised to delegates and activists who, he said, had been criticised in the report so that he would be attacked. "These people deserve much better."
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V. Cauchi
May 28th 2008, 17:47
May I share with you a bit of information that I picked from blogworld about the now infamous "extra hour"
Here are the most relevant extracts from comments exchanged between Dr Andrew Borg Cardona ( I.M.Beck) and another blogger:
........ Tuesday, 27 May 2120hrs
According to Labour’s report, it was the PN who first requetsed an extension in the voting time by an hour as early as 4pm. It is probable that they knew that the arrivals from abroad would not manage to make it by 10pm to vote. How many voters were there remains open to question but as ......... said, it would indeed be a gross invasion of privacy if these details were to be made public.
andrew borg-cardona Tuesday, 27 May 2141hrs
People arriving in Malta at any time after midnight on the THURSDAY BEFORE THE ELECTION would not have been able to collect their Voting Document. And the request came from Labour first - this I have from impeccable sources.
a
ndrew borg-cardona Tuesday, 27 May 2232hrs
…..it was the MLP that asked for the extension.
Just note that Dr Borg Cardona is quoting impeccable sources
Now how about that?
Mike Magri
May 28th 2008, 14:33
I honestly believe, that Dr. Michael Falzon and others, for that matter, have ALL THE RIGHT to disagree, criticize or even blasts, on anything that they feel was not fair to them in this report, IN PUBLIC.....
After all, it was the party`s decision to make such hot report public....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
C O R R E C T...................
Keith Chircop
May 28th 2008, 14:04
Ben Grech: Actually, my comment ended with: What's the use of a government with zero tolerance towards corruption when it's incompetent at everything else?
Ben grech
May 28th 2008, 12:58
@Keith, The end of your comment is quite compelling "the country needs to be governed by organized people, whether there is corruption or not" . I can only hope that the majority of the populace doesn't share a similar disregard to the manner in which we re governed.
Joe Vella
May 28th 2008, 12:10
@ Christina Borg
Christina, Michael Falzon indicated that the member that was aggressive towards him was a female member of the Commission. As such, there were two female members on the said Commision. A certain Carmen Sammut and a certain Renee Laiviera.
I couldn't help it but there two individuals that bear the same surnames and from what I can tell are active members withinthe MLP. So, mu guess is that it could be any one of the two mentioned above.
V. Cauchi
May 28th 2008, 11:49
I cannot believe that these remarks are coming from the same person who screamed himself hoarse chanting "Labour United" on the Granaries and at Luxol Grounds just under two months ago. Comments such as these do more damage to the person who makes them than to the party they are addressed
Jennifer Cosaitis
May 28th 2008, 10:52
Why do the officials, delegates and other party members take pride in expanding the damage in the MLP ? This is their own party party for goodness' sake ! As Mr Chircop suggested in the previous post, I must also admit that at this point what the MLP needs in my opinion is some sort of magician to maybe be able to bring it back from the depths it has sunk to. Until then ... the internal wars will just rage on ..
Keith Chircop
May 28th 2008, 09:04
I can see clearly now. The way the Malta Labour Party's MPs have been acting in the last two weeks have been a huge revelation. WIth or without Sant, the MLP will be in shambles. This party doesn't need a George Abela or a Joseph Muscat, it needs a messiah, a mahdi, something along those lines.
The country needs to be governed by organized people, whether there is corruption or not. What's the use of a government with zero tolerance towards corruption when it's incompetent at everything else?