It is a question that pops up after every election and each time Alternattiva Demokratika survives another five years. But with no one willing to lead the party its demise is suddenly a real prospect. Acting chairman Carmel Cacopardo speaks to Kurt Sansone.

AD obtained its best ever general election result in March. Yet you have argued that with more than 37,000 votes shifting allegiance, AD only managed to attract 1,700. You said the result was not exceptional. Why did AD fail to attract more voters at a time when they were more willing to shift allegiance?

Voters were not as interested in who gets elected as much as who is not elected. My assessment from discussions I had with various people is that the priority of those who shifted allegiance was to sweep the Nationalist Party out of government. Obviously, if voters delved deeper into our electoral programme they may have thought it differently.

Was this a deficiency on AD’s part or are voters to blame?

I will not attribute blame to the voters. It is their way of looking at things. I am not passing judgment on how people voted. It is reality. People made their own assessment and they felt it more important to throw the PN out of office.

The priority of those who shifted allegiance was to sweep the Nationalist Party out of government

Does this assessment apply for every election because AD never surpassed the two per cent mark since contesting its first election in 1992?

I have never delved into such detail on AD’s past electoral performances but this year’s result also has its positive elements. It is the best ever election result and almost a 50 per cent increase over five years ago. This is also the first time that AD increased its votes when the election produced a change of government. This indicates that AD did appeal to some of those who switched and new voters.

Is it just the electoral system that is to blame or is the electorate predisposed to shun third parties?

When the British created this electoral system in 1921 they tried it out in Malta and Ireland with the express intention of creating a fragmented political scene. In Malta we used the system in a completely different way and history shows that the only time there was a strong third party, or more, with parliamentary representation, was a result of a split in the two major parties. In the late 1940s and 1950s the Malta Workers Party was a strong third party as a result of a split in the Labour Party and in the 1960s splits in both parties created a host of smaller groups. Since then the culture has not yet changed, or rather is changing slowly.

Is AD and its policies the problem or is it the concept of having a third party that is alien to voters?

I believe it is a result of the basic Maltese culture of being either for or against something with no shades in between. In all of Europe there are coalition governments and more than two parties in Parliament, even in tiny San Marino.

The 2004 MEP elections saw AD obtain its best ever result achieving just under 10 per cent. However that momentum was lost. Why?

Rather than being a momentum that election result was the electorate’s reaction to circumstances at the time, which were not repeated. If we look at the circumstances, the thing that comes to mind most is [then Prime Minister] Dr Gonzi’s controversial decision to appoint Eddie Fenech Adami President of the Republic. People in part reacted to that.

What would you have done differently in the last election?

We could have had more candidates, possibly some well-known faces. But for the first time this election also saw a good number of votes transferred from Labour candidates to AD candidates, especially in the ninth, 10th and 11th districts. It never happened because traditionally the balance was always in favour of the PN but evidently it was still not enough.

There is a perception grounded in reality that AD is strongest in the PN-leaning districts. Does this make AD too regional in outlook?

This element exists and there is a tendency to get more votes from the pro-PN districts but given our increase of almost 50 per cent, better results were achieved across the board. We witnessed the same percentage increase in the second, third, fourth and fifth districts.

But it is a fact that a substantial amount of voters decided to stay at home and not vote. Why didn’t they feel comfortable to vote AD? Could it be AD’s policies were too liberal?

It could be but you can never agree with everything in an electoral programme.

The party has no leader and nobody has come forward. Is this the beginning of the end for AD?

This is not the first time in AD that nobody came forward to take up the job of chairperson. It is the first time that the matter has dragged on for far too long but ever since I have been active in AD (five years) this problem cropped up every time there was a change in leadership. I hope that until we establish a date for the next annual meeting we would have identified somebody.

Why has nobody come forward?

To lead AD you have to leave everything behind you. You have to dedicate your time to it. If you see the reasons Michael Briguglio gave when he relinquished the post, it had a high personal cost. Not everybody is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Will you be willing to contest the post?

If I was willing I would have submitted my nomination.

You joined AD more than five years ago but very few high profile individuals have followed suit. What keeps these people away from AD?

There are various people who are active in civil society, who support AD but not everyone is ready to take the final step and contest an election. Some are also not interested in getting publicly involved in politics and the behaviour of some established MPs does not attract people.

Will AD ever leave its mark by electing an MP?

I think it is inevitable because society is gradually evolving and when the change happens it will be sudden. The sensitivity towards the issues AD champions is there but the priority of people when voting has not yet led them to vote for us.

Do you realistically see this happening?

It is possible. We had other established political parties and at times more than three and I see no reason why it should not happen again in the future.

But the big parties have today taken on board the issues AD champions such as divorce, which is now a reality, gay rights and the environment...

They are taking on board everything but whether they believe in these issues is a different matter altogether... many times they are just taking the issues on board for convenience and our work is to put them under the spotlight.

But divorce has become law and civil unions for gay couples will be introduced in this legislature.

To lead AD you have to leave everything behind you. You have to dedicate your time to it

Yes, divorce is law and AD is participating in the committee set up by Civil Rights Minister Helena Dalli. We accepted the invitation to participate and two members will be involved in the drafting of the Bill by the committee.

In this context why should the electorate vote to have AD in Parliament?

If AD was represented in Parliament we would not have waited until now to implement these changes. There are various other things such as whether civil unions should be upgraded to gay marriage. There are also issues in our electoral programme that are not important for the other parties and we will force them to discuss them such as the illegal boathouses.

What is going to happen to AD? What is going on internally?

We are discussing the best way forward. The executive met last week and we decided to postpone the general meeting both to seek solutions and give members time to reflect.

Are there people interested in the leadership?

As yet nobody has come forward.

In a blog post last week you said that if members did not translate their support into activism you did not know what will happen to AD. Why?

That is reality. We depend on how willing our members are to translate what they believe in into action. If they are not ready to do so, the choice is theirs. Although I am currently acting chairman, I will not be making the choice.

I have a duty to group the proposals made and transmit them to our members. I will give all the options available for them to decide the future.

When will this happen?

No decision has yet been taken on a date.

See also: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130526/local/Breaking-the-deadlock.471215

ksansone@timesofmalta.com