The government's announcement that next year's council elections will be held in conjunction with the proposed spring hunting referendum is unethical and hasty, hunters said.

In a statement, the hunters’ federation (FKNK) said the government may have given in to pressure by a few individuals who, had they been genuinely convinced about their proposed abolitionist action, would not have been scared of a separate referendum.

The FKNK said that Justice Minister Owen Bonnici's press conference last week might have been too rash, since one of the interested parties, including the government, the Opposition orthe Attorney General had responded to the legal objections opposing the holding of the referendum, raised by the FKNK at the Constitutional Court. 

FKNK's objections were still under judicial consideration and consequently, the federation believed this action might influence the responses of the different entities, possibly even the court’s.

FKNK said it refused to believe that members of Parliament had decided to ignore FKNK's petition to Parliament, which also opposed the proposed referendum. 

The federation said it believed that the relative Referendum Act was being used abusively by a few individuals to achieve their personal hidden agenda. 

The FKNK petition, it said, was signed by more than 104,000 Maltese and Gozitans, a third of the voters who elected MPs to Parliament.

The FKNK said it had full confidence in the Constitutional Court's wisdom, justice and operating equity and would, for the time being, await the outcome of the court’s decision.