Hunters will not be urged to boycott the upcoming referendum and instead voters will be encouraged to head to the polls and vote Yes to retain spring hunting.

Timesofmalta.com reported yesterday afternoon that the hunting fraternity would be running a positive campaign, and an official announcement by the hunters’ federation was made during the television programme Xarabank in the evening.

The campaign, called ‘Iva’ (Yes), has its own website, www.iva.com.mt, and is reminiscent of the ‘Ngħidu Iva’ (Let’s say yes) campaign that saw Malta join the EU in 2003.

Representing the hunters’ federation, lawyer Kathleen Grima confirmed on Xarabank last night that hunters would be encouraged to vote Yes. Further details will be given today at a press conference launching the campaign. Sources within the hunting lobby said they had long abandoned the possibility of calling on voters to abstain. On the contrary, the sources added, the campaign would mostly be a positive one. Electoral experts contacted by Times of Malta last month said hunters would be committing “electoral suicide” if they called for an abstention.

Sources said they had long abandoned the idea of calling on voters to abstain

“Voter turnout is so high on the island that it would be illogical to gear up for an abstention.

“They really would be shooting themselves in the foot,” one expert, who had advised on a previous referendum campaign, said. For a referendum to pass, 50 per cent of the electorate, plus one, must vote.

Although unconventional, it would not have been the first time a lobby group lobbied for an abstention. Former Labour leader Alfred Sant urged voters to abstain or write Viva Malta on the voting document in the EU membership referendum. Similarly, then Nationalist Party leader George Borg Olivier called on voters to abstain on Dom Mintoff’s integration referendum in 1956.

The abrogative referendum, to be held on April 11, will ask voters whether they want to retain the legal notice that makes spring hunting possible.

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