PL to 'closely watch' corrupt practices case
Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning that the PL would be closely following a case, due to be presented in court next month, where a man would be accused of corrupt practices at the March 8 general election.
He said this was one of the cases mentioned in the past by the PL and involved an employer who allegedly demanded evidence from his employees over the way they had voted, or else they would be dismissed.
Dr Muscat said there were other cases which the PL felt should lead to court action.
OCCUPATIONAL ACCIDENTS
Speaking at Lija, Dr Muscat said it was unacceptable that two workers died at their place of work in a week. A worker died under tons of glass he was unloading from a fork-lifter on Tuesday, and a construction worker fell to his death in Rabat yesterday.
Dr Muscat demanded effective implementation of European health and safety laws in Malta.
Malta, he said, had many laws on paper, but they were not being implemented and the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) was under-staffed.
Those two deaths, he said, should be a wake-up call. It needed to be ensured that the OHSA was given the tools with which to work. Employers needed to ensure that their employees were protected, and the workers themselves needed to take the precautions expected of them.
UTILITY BILLS
Dr Muscat, who was replying to questions by journalists, backed the unions’ call for people not to pay their utility bills in the first 45 days after they received them. Referring to the study made by auditors into the workings of the water and electricity bills, Dr Muscat observed that the auditors were saying that Enemalta inefficiencies cost €3 million. In previous reports that figure was €20 million. Who was coming out with these figures?
It was shocking, he said, that Enemalta did not even know how many electricity meters there were and the number was being ‘assumed’. So how could one believe how the bills were worked out?
Dr Muscat said the regulator should demand action from the government on the basis of promises made by Minister Austin Gatt himself that prices would go down when international oil prices fell.
He would not give a figure on the cost to Enemalta of reducing the bills to the level which the PL is demanding but insisted that reviewing the bill downwards would not entail any subsidies.
Dr Muscat said the PL would take an initiative in Parliament to ensure that the government accounted for its actions.
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Dr Francis Saliba
Jan 22nd 2009, 07:17
@Joe Agiue et al
Of course, one has to go back 30 years before one can find grievious abuses by the MLP but only because it has been a practically uninterrupted 30 years since that party was in power and in a position to commit abuses with the connivance of the forces of law and order!
Dr Francis Saliba
Jan 21st 2009, 20:36
This is unbelievably rich!
The "allegation" is that employees had to provide evidence of how they had voted to their employer or else be dismissed! If the allegation were true one would anticipate mass dismissals of all the employees in view of the difficulty to conjure up such reliable evidence of what had happened in the supervised privacy of the election booths! Or perhaps there was only one dismissal and for reasons unconnected with the election!
Wait and see.
Edwin Formosa
Jan 20th 2009, 21:56
CORRUPT PRACTICES CASE : Antonella Cutajar was accosted by a large group of men who threatened her and her daughter with violence if she went in to vote. When she did actually attempt to enter to vote, she was struck on the face and the voting document was snatched out of her hand........ John Busuttil, an assistant commissioner , while he was manning a polling booth in the primary school at Zejtun, around ten people barged into the room, pushed him into a corner...........Charles Cumbo was hit in the face and his glasses were sent flying.......www.maltatoday.com.mt/2002/12/08/081202sr.pdf
Anthony Callus
Jan 20th 2009, 17:19
@ Alex Coppola:
May I shall remind you that tear gas on innocent victims was used on 31st March of 1989? and please, enlighten me a bit, who was exactly in office on that day?
P.Schembri
Jan 20th 2009, 16:42
@C.Sapiano. There are many types of violence, and there is one in which the PN excels in, psychological violence. So please don't try to be the pure one.
C.Sapiano
Jan 20th 2009, 13:26
Labourite thugs are still there. Look at what happened in Kirkop. It is a fact that you find more episodes of violence from Labourites than from Nationalists. But then violence is always wrong.
M. Catania
Jan 20th 2009, 12:21
You may say so because it has not effected you personally. The only thing here is that my father was humiliated and threatened because he was doing his job (he was not on a political picketing line). Incidents like these I will never forget.
Again I reiterate that such actions should not be allowed be it from the reds, green or the blues.
Stanley Fenech
Jan 20th 2009, 09:54
@ Shirley Attard and @ J. Borg
I cannot but agree with both of you regarding the harping on about things that happened in the past. However, one must remember that a people who forgets his past tends to do the same mistakes of the past. I am not pointing any fingers here, as mistakes were done from most politcal parties.
As for the utility bills, I believe that we are allowed to pay our bills up to 45 days from issuing and not from the day we receive them. I think that anyone asking for such stands must inform the people accordingly and cautionsly, as not paying such bills in time may incur other penalties.
J. Borg
Jan 19th 2009, 13:51
@ Shirley Attard
I cannot but agree with you about these people harping on about things that happened 20 or more years ago.
I have been saying about this a long time here...we are only interested in our future as our way or living and standard of living depends on what lies ahead.
Iam not young in fact over 50 so no one can say that i didn't live those years....but for me it's what the future has got to offer me now that counts not what has passed.
Shirley Attard
Jan 19th 2009, 13:10
Lol am I the only one who saw the sarcasm in Manuel Mifsud's post (where he said the 80's were heaven)?
Anyway... does anyone realise that the famous 80's were more than 20 years ago? I don't have any particular affiliation with either party, both parties had their right and wrong-doings and the ones implying that were the PL to be elected we will somehow go back to the 80's certainly don't agree that with the PN we are going back to the 60's. And well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander...
In actual fact many people who behaved in a politically incorrect way back then are now..... deceased....
It's one think talking of what happened the past 5 or 10 years... but harping on about the mistakes committed more than 20 years ago by people who by now are either dead or in nursing homes is a bit stretching it too far in my opinion!
Alex Coppola
Jan 19th 2009, 12:13
M Buhagiar
Sorry sir it was not me who brought up the eighties but one (apparently an ardent LP supporter) whose name I do not need to mention again and who stated that he lived in paradise under KMB.
mark tanti
Jan 18th 2009, 21:49
Please LP friends think twice or even more before you talk about corrupt practices. I just heard dr Muscat saying that for dr Abela to become president there was the need of the LP approval. Maybe dr Muscat does not yet know or had other intensions in his mind that to elect a new president a simple majority in parlament is enough and that the Constitution ( which in this case I do not agree with) does not bind the PM to consult the oppostion leader. The PM did well to consult with dr.Muscat Regarding the Elect. tariffs we are presently paying for a hedging agreement which the LP was so in favour of such agreements.
Joe Agius
Jan 18th 2009, 20:38
JEESSSSSS all these Pn apologist when they have no issue to attack the Labour Leader they always refair to 30 years ago.
BTW Few montha ago Joseph muscat issued an apology many times on different media. OOOOPPS but i forgot that you were and still are living back in time. If you want to wake up no it's youri turn (PN) to apologise to what you did but if' you don't want to do it no problem we are looking for the future.
A.Gauci Cunningham
Jan 18th 2009, 20:37
Oh for Pete's sake!! We have a looming recession, dwindling tourist numbers, people on 4-day-week, hefty bills to finance waste, upcoming taxes due to delayed projects, Hotels closing for the winter, Ministers buying jaguars and rewarding themselves with payrises and projects which have been in the pipeline for years thrown out of the window for good with no consultation whatsoever and all some of you keep ranting about are the 80's and how bad KMB was and how violent labour supporters were!!
I am a younger voter and I'd appretiate it if some bloggers who still have the gall to support this tragi-comedy of a government give answers to our worries!!!
Stop wailing and give us the "beef"!!!
A Zammit
Jan 18th 2009, 19:19
dr Sant kien jinsisti hafna fuq il-korruzzjoni u issa Joseph qed jaghmel l-istess ... ghalhekk li kien hemm bzonn li dr Sant jibqa involuti fil-partit biex jaghti l-pariri tieghu lil joseph
rigward il-kontijiet tad-dawl u l-ilma niehu pjacir nara li Joseph qed jappoggja lill-gWu
the only way is up - labour!
M.Buhagiar
Jan 18th 2009, 19:11
Alex Coppola
Did you live in hell and with tear gas from 96 to 98 under a labour government ??
Everyone knows the answer so dont bother to reply
These tactics of the past dont work any more Mr. Coppola .
Rather than trying to mention the 80`s the people tend to remember a government made out of broken promises !!
G. Mangion
Jan 18th 2009, 19:10
@ V Fenech ( qoute ) PL has already issued an apology on many occasions. Lol
But the pl/mlp said they have no REGRETS too, You moan to much fullstop.
M. Catania
Jan 18th 2009, 19:00
@V fenech
Whatever illegal practices are done give it by Labour or Nationalist supporters are condemnable. But correct me if I am in the wrong here, the Labour party has never apologised for the eighties. Again, I do not condone any illegal practices and if there are any perpetrators of such actions, these should be identified and brought to justice.
Alex Coppola
Jan 18th 2009, 18:09
@ Manuel Mifsud
Quote: "Remember when KMB was in government? We were living in paradise during those days." Paradise! What paradise? The attack on the curia? The disrupted PN meeting at Zejtun when tear gas was used on innocent victms? When to purchase a colour TV one would need the minister's blessing? The smashing of my car's windscreen from a stone thrown by the labour Zejtun thugs whilst driving for no apparent reason? The wage freeze for five years? The attacks on various PN clubs everywhere? The list is endless...........Mr. Mifsud where were you then? Perhaps you were very close with the then MLP(now PL)
Is this what you call paradise? If so then I am pleased to say that I would prefer living in hell today than living in "paradise" under KMB in the eighties.
Enzo Caruana
Jan 18th 2009, 17:16
@Mr Martinelli
Although most of your comments make me weep in despair sometimes you really make me laugh. Your comment "political parties should stop issuing electoral programmes preceding an election, so that they will be unable to break promises, since none was forthcoming before the election" gets the cherry on the cake. So now you are advising your beloved nationalist party to desist from making electoral promises before the elections knowing full well that these promises are going to be broken. What a certificate of credibility you have given to your party. The most important issue here is that the Maltese are no longer a gullible lot ready to be taken for a ride by a party who is hell bent on broken promises and U Turns. The latest is the Ta Qali Crafts village debacle. I do not know where you payy your taxes Mr Martinelli but our taxes are being flushed down the drain by an inefficcient and washed out government who gives a damn about monies spent on consultancies, pr execises of projects that are abandoned for no apparent reason. The new way of doing poltics is accountability, transparency and fulfiment of commitmments. Gonzi failed miserably.
V Fenech
Jan 18th 2009, 16:53
@ M Catania
PL has already issued an apology on many occasions. PN is not so much courageous to admit his greater past mistakes. The tribunal of injustices had reviewed the cases of a number of people claiming injustices under a PN government. Although the tribunal has found their case as genuine, the Government is still refusing to compensate the victims of injustice. That's what I call injustices my friend!
Yes it is very easy to criticise while being in Opposition, especially when you have certain contributors like Joseph Borg who don't mind having a modern state of the art hospital with the same problems, if not worse, of St.Luke's.
p.s. Martinelli, how come you're commenting against the persisting political division today and not against Dr Muscat and Labour?
Manuel micallef
Jan 18th 2009, 16:53
What PN and church did in the 60s was wrong - putting dead labourities "fil-mizbla" was hardly catholic....
what PL (and PN - because it wasn't one way violence) did during the 80s in violence was wrong as well.
But now we are living in 2009. And this kind of stuff should stop. I am very eager toknow the truth in these alleged cases - especially how big and wide spread these where;
J.Borg
Jan 18th 2009, 16:38
@ Mr.Martinelli
Well said and written.....
But if i remember well the first words Joseph Muscat said that they are going to aid the government in National issues.....but am sorry to say that it is the government who hasn't accepted this elping hand.....
How come you haven't written by the promises made by your government (though yo live in Canada) regards the old theatre site, the crafts villae and the drydock No. 1 aren't these broken promises!!!
Muscat.P.
Jan 18th 2009, 15:45
New style of politics because Louis Galea, a veritable veteran was by-passed for a President?,
J Martinelli
Jan 18th 2009, 14:52
Under the guise of 'new way of doing politics', political parties should stop issuing electoral programmes preceding an election, so that they will be unable to break promises, since none was forthcoming before the election.
The adage 'a day in politics is a lifetime' is only used selectively and when expedient. The fact that world economic conditions changed drastically between March 2008 and October 2008, ought not, many think, to have changed the government's priorities!
When other countries are losing jobs at the rate of thousands per day and increasing the unemployment rate at almost 1% per month, Malta should consider itself extremely lucky. It will get hit eventually, since, in a global economy, any boom or bust will affect the world across the board - some more than others. This is an inescapable fact.
What is different in Malta remains the fact that while political parties in other countries join together in earnest to find short term solutions, here the division persists.
It is a case of cutting one's nose to spite one's face.
Oscar Cassar
Jan 18th 2009, 14:30
In a Democracy the leader of the Opposition and his party have a duty to closely follow a case in court where a man would be accused of corrupt practices at a general election. But what is the link with Dr Gonzi that some here are indicating?
Joseph Borg
Jan 18th 2009, 14:10
I consider myself a senior citizen so I think that I have a good overview of the last 55 years and I can confirm that all the hallabaloo written in this page has been repeating itself during all these years. In opposition we can always promise heaven on earth and have everything for free and paying no taxes whatsoever, what the ruling party does is all bad and wrong and when we are in evrything will be fantastic. I think it will be much better if we have a slogan " whatever you do we can do better".
M Psaila
Jan 18th 2009, 14:05
Where is your new way of doing politics dear Joseph?
YOU JUST SOUND LIKE ALFRED SANT!
WHAT A PITY!
M. Catania
Jan 18th 2009, 13:49
Yes, Joseph you must closely watch these corrupt practices. These are unheard of in our country and we only see these practices in Zimbabwe.
Oops, i forgot I had my own father threatened when he was an electoral commissioner way back in 1987 at Zejtun. A particular Labourite thug had told him that if he did not comply with their demands, they would push him through the ventilator!! This was given out in court during the trial of this particular thug. After leaving the witness box, this labourite thug swore at my father in the presence of the police.
Until the Labour party issues an apology, we will never forget. And don't tell me about the sixties, the violence was uncomparable. Iddahaqnix Guz!!!!
Manuel Mifsud
Jan 18th 2009, 12:51
In these days of recession with all the uncertainty and bleak times ahead, we surely needed PL in government; they have the solutions for everything. Remember when KMB was in government? We were living in paradise during those days. How could the people be so stupid and keep electing a PN government? Can someone explain?
Mario Bonnici
Jan 18th 2009, 12:30
@ Joseph Agius
Can you please give us one example of Gonzi's new way of politics?
All we saw in this first year since last March elections were decisions being taken without any consultation at all.
Maria Pace
Jan 18th 2009, 12:27
@Joseph Agius.
What you term as "Gonzi's new style of doing politics" came about ever since Joseph was elected leader and the breath of fresh air that came with it.
It is merely the attempt by the prime minister to be in everyone's good books when in fact, he knows and eveyone knows, including you, that it's next to impossible.
Allow me to give a little example: For crying out loud, we are going to have a decent President and after seeing Net News, you'd think Gonzi was nominated for President not George Abela.
By the looks of it, you seem to be living somewhere else, mate.
A.Gauci cunningham
Jan 18th 2009, 11:49
@ J.Aguis----If bypassing civil society and the population at large and imposing bills which would result to be detrimental to jobs at a time of looming recessions and possibly a very bad year for tourism is new style of doing politics than I suggest you check out the phrase on your Political dictionary again!!
My employer is faced on one hand with huge electricity bills due to the fact that he had to install AC's in classrooms to remain competitive and on the other a downturn in the numbers of students this winter and not-so-spectacular forecasts for the Summer!!
................and this not to mention other decisions like the pricehikes in gas, drainage tax and lack of investment in our product (look at the shambles called Bugibba!!!)
If the above way is Gonzi's "new way of doing politics" than give me the old one and presto please!! ( and NO I don't mean the 80's!!!)
V Fenech
Jan 18th 2009, 11:43
@ Joseph Agius
Seems that you are one of those who whenever they hear the word 'Joseph', they turn into a nasty anti-Labour cobra!
Can you explain to us all what is this new style of politics by Dr.Gonzi?
That of paying hefty bills to make good for election treats? Did you read the article about GRTU this morning..."old rhetoric" yes?
That's because everybody got used to this type of faulty politics from GonziPN!
J. Manduka
Jan 18th 2009, 11:42
Gonzi's new way of politics ?
Opera house --> parliament
President --> Abela
Craft's Village --> Bacir No.1
You are right Joseph Agius. We have a new way of politics from Dr. Gonzi. DICTATORSHIP
l ebejer
Jan 18th 2009, 11:24
@ joe agius
I wonder if you are still living in Malta!!!!
Joseph Agius
Jan 18th 2009, 11:17
still hearing same old rhetoric...still hearing the old bla bla bla moan moan moan.....still waiting for new style of politics......seems only Dr Gonzi is using a new style of politics!