All 167 candidates who contested the last general election have submitted a sworn declaration stating they did not exceed the €1,400 expense limit per district in their electoral campaigns.

An exercise conducted by Times of Malta shows many of the candidates, particularly those elected, declared expenses of just a few euros short of the legal limit. On the other hand, eight unelected candidates declared they spent nothing on their personal campaigns.

In general, the declarations are bare of any details and receipts, with a few exceptions.

For example, former Foreign Minister Francis Zammit Dimech attached a restaurant menu with his declaration showing what his constituents ate during a get together.

The new chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika, Arnold Cassola, attached petrol chits indicating the cost of driving from one activity to another during the electoral campaign.

According to the law, those found to have exceeded the €1,400 expense limit could be prosecuted and may even lose their seat in the House of Representatives if found guilty. The Electoral Commission does not investigate any of the submissions made but only checks whether the declarations respect the law.

The declarations show that all the candidates stated they were within the limit despite some of them having organised massive ‘free’ parties for their constituents and sending electoral brochures to all voters in their respective districts.

Highest PN spender at €1,392

Social Dialogue Minister Helena Dalli declared spending exactly €1,400. Some of her colleagues declared spending a few euros less, including Joseph Sammut (€1,397), Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia (€1,390) and the Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly, Franco Mercieca (€1,350).

On the other hand, Labour MP Carmelo Abela declared the least amount of expenses (€465 on two districts) followed by Labour MP Deborah Schembri, who declared spending just €472 in her campaign although she added that the printing of her marketing material was given as a donation.

The highest spender among the Nationalist Party MPs was Claudio Grech, who declared just €8 under the €1,400 limit, followed by Albert Fenech (€1,389) and former Health Minister Joe Cassar ­­­­­(€1,388).

Stephen Spiteri, a popular medical doctor in the Cottonera area, spent the least among the Nationalists – just €160.

A total of eight candidates, six for the PN (Antoine Borg, Alexiei Dingli, Rudolf Grima, Michael Asciak, Evelyn Vella Brincat and John Zammit Montebello) and two for AD (Mario Mallia and Angele Deguara) declared they incurred no expenses at all in their campaigns.

On the other hand, Żaren Bonnici (Tal-Ajkla) declared spending €1,000 although he was the only one who did not have an agent during the campaign.

An exercise by The Sunday Times of Malta in 2009 showed that at least eight MEP candidates appeared to have exceeded the legal limit on campaign expenditure. Then PN candidate Edward Demicoli had said “the law is being broken by almost everyone”.

From commissioner to commissioner

Police Commisioner Peter Paul Zammit.

According to the law, the declarations of expenses by candidates have to be submitted by personal election agents of the candidates and sworn before a commissioner of oaths.

The ‘big’ parties – the Labour and the Nationalist parties – normally coordinate this exercise and use ‘friendly’ legal professionals to file the submissions to the Electoral Commission.

While all the PN declarations were sworn in front of Henri Darmanin, the head of the party’s electoral office, all Labour’s declarations were signed by the commissioner of oaths, Peter Paul Zammit. A few days after signing these declarations, Mr Zammit was appointed Police Commissioner.