A hunting association yesterday accused the Green Party, Alternattiva Demokratika, of being intent on abusing the referendums legislation to try and secure a ban on hunting by repealing a law that regulates the practice.

In an open letter to MPs, the St Hubert Hunters said the party and its newly acquired partners were trying “to satisfy its abolitionist ideals”.

The association said the hunting referendum petition had struggled to gather 40,000 signatures within eight months, while according to media reports the petition opposing it collected twice the number in half the time.

Our politicians had better take note of this precarious situation

This, it said, clearly showed that a large sector of the Maltese public saw through the “vile opportunism” of Birdlife Malta, which had lobbied for a ban on legal hunting using totally unrelated illegal incidents to garner support.

St Hubert Hunters were sick and tired of their deceit and damaging publicity.

The result of the referendum would determine the credibility of Birdlife and the referendum coalition members but would not deter the illegal hunting element that had no respect for law and order.

It would also show the inadequacy of the country’s referendum laws whereby if indoctrinated, the signatures of 10 per cent of the voting population collected over an indefinite period of time could repeal any law passed by any government.

“With a spring hunting referendum petition being considered and another one, intent on banning civil unions, in the pipeline, our politicians in Parliament had better take note of this precarious situation.”

Even more so “considering the involvement of a failed political party, that never exceeded 1.8 per cent of votes throughout its existence, intent on abusing our referendum laws to satisfy its abolitionist ideals and those of its newly acquired partners by repealing a law that regulates a legal activity endorsed by both democratically elected political parties”.