A company director was cleared of charges that he had tried to force employees to vote for the Nationalist Party in the last general election.

Pierre Bartolo, 45, from Swieqi, was charged with corrupt practices and illegal influence after Labour Party deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia filed a police report claiming that a number of votes were rigged in the March 2008 election.

Dr Farrugia had drawn up a report, which he presented to the Police Commissioner, listing between 100 and 200 people who he said were paid to vote for the PN.

The report in respect to Mr Bartolo included claims made by Anthony Zammit, one of Mr Bartolo’s employees at the Papillion cafeteria in Mater Dei Hospital, that one of his colleagues, Kristylee Bezzina, was forced to vote for the PN.

Mr Bartolo was accused of threatening Ms Bezzina and Mr Zammit on how to vote at the general election.

However, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli noted that Mr Zammit, also known as Is-Sei, had never mentioned Mr Bartolo as the person who had tried to influence the way he voted but instead accused the company’s chef. In fact, Mr Zammit had testified that he was given a lift to the polling station by chef Edwin Cioffi, who even wanted to give him his wife’s mobile phone to take a photo of his vote.

Mr Cioffi denied the claims insisting he had simply given Mr Zammit a lift after work, something he used to do very often.

When called to testify, Ms Bezzina at first said that Mr Bartolo gave her a lift to the polling station but never told her how she should vote. When re-examined a few minutes later, Ms Bezzina changed her version and accused Mr Bartolo of forcing her to vote Nationalist.

She explained she thought she had lost her voting document after her handbag was stolen the night before, on March 7, in Paceville. When she met her employer the next day – on election day – she explained she did not vote because she could not do so. At that point, Mr Bartolo became angry and accused her of being careless by taking the document to Paceville with her. She added he also told her that "if the Labour Party win, you might as well not come to work on Monday".

Soon after, Ms Bezzina’s mother found her missing document at home and Mr Bartolo gave her a lift to vote, she said. She insisted that she always knew which party she was going to vote for and did so accordingly.

Magistrate Demicoli said that encouraging someone to vote or providing transport to the polling station could not be considered to be an illegal influence or corrupt practice because, otherwise, the political parties’ electoral offices, which help the elderly and the disabled, would also be guilty of the crime.

Moreover, she said, the comment about Ms Bezzina losing her job had to be taken within the contest of Mr Bartolo’s anger at her losing the voting document and her statement that she knew who she was going to vote for.

Such statements did not amount to illegal influence or corrupt practice and, as a result, Mr Bartolo was cleared of all charges.

Police Inspectors Anthony Portelli and Daniel Zammit prosecuted.

Lawyers Joseph Giglio and Paul Farrugia were defence counsel.

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