In his letter ‘When the PN played with democracy’ (September 15), Eddy Privitera wrote that when the Nationalist Party condemned the government for entertaining the idea of postponing local council elections, it should have reminded readers it “had no qualms of conscience or fears of undermining democracy when it decided to withdraw a number of candidates at the last minute before the deadline for applications to contest the local elections at Żejtun and Marsa”. I would like to point out that the PN did not object to the elections being held at Żejtun and Marsa without its candidates.

I would also like to remind the correspondent that, in the general election held on December 12, 1981 , the PN had obtained a clear majority of valid votes cast under the proportional representation system but failed to win power because, due to electoral district manipulation, Labour went on to govern until May 9, 1987.

This was when the Malta Labour Party negated democracy and the popular vote in a dictatorial and totalitarian atmosphere.

Privitera should be careful on what he says because I distinctly remember the articles he wrote in Times of Malta at the time in which he had attempted to justify this socialist obscenity.