One vote - four versions

The Nationalist Party said today that the PL had so far given four versions of the controversial way how its MEPs voted last week on a report on compulsory burden sharing and amendments to the Dublin II regulation on responsibility for migrants.

In the original vote, MEP Louis Grech had voted in favour, John Attard Montalto had voted against and Glenn Bedingfield had not voted,despite being in the parliamentary chamber.

The PN said the people were still expecting a proper explanation and an apology.

Shortly after the vote, Dr Attard Montalto said he had pressed the wrong button while, at the same time, in Naxxar, the Labour leader said all MEPs voted in favour. An hour later, Labour was saying there had been a technical fault in the voting mechanism and that the three Labour MEPs had immediately registered their vote in favour.

But while Dr Attard Montalto's vote was changed from against to favour, Mr Bedingfiel's vote was never shown and it was 48 hours before Mr Bedingfield started saying that he had voted in favour.

Yesterday, Dr Muscat admitted that the MEPs had voted differently from each other, saying they had made a mistake.

The PN said the people were rightly asking what the the correct version.

The people expected their representatives in the European Parliament to vote in the national interest and they should not make mistakes in important matters such as migration.