The referendum question will boil down to a straight yes or no to spring hunting, it was announced last night as hunting lobby officials meet daily to map out their strategy.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told Parliament that the question will ask voters whether they agree to retain the legal notice that makes spring hunting possible.

Those who want spring hunting to stay should vote “yes” and those who want to abolish it should vote “no”, Dr Muscat said.

There had been some confusion over how the question should be worded after the anti-hunting lobby had appealed for a “yes” vote to remove the law despite legal documents speaking in terms of whether the legal notice should be retained.

In a country where people do not seem to be fed up of elections the boycott strategy may not work

There were also discrepencies between the Maltese and English versions of both the law and the petition calling for the poll.

The Coalition for the Abolition of Spring Hunting welcomed the Prime Minister’s “confirmation” of the referendum question.

Campaign coordinator Romina Tolu said: “People now have the chance to take this important decision on the future of Malta, their countryside and, of course, the birds. This is no longer an issue which is decided by the politicians.”

Meanwhile, the pro-hunting camp has been having daily meetings since Friday’s court decision allowing the referendum to go ahead, Times of Malta has learnt.

Sources said officials were mulling which strategy to adopt as Malta heads for a referendum on April 11 prompted by a coalition of environmental groups.

The news comes just as Opposition leader Simon Busuttil instructed the Nationalist Party to debate the issue internally and take a position “as soon as possible”. The hunting federation, FKNK, has not yet issued directives to members but as officials evaluate their strategy, a coalition of interest groups, including fireworks and fishing enthusiasts, is likely to build around FKNK’s position.

The referendum will be held on the same day that electors in half of the country vote in local council elections.

Although hunters were evaluating the possibility of boycotting the referendum, sources said the political parties’ mobilisation for the local elections could work against such a strategy.

For the referendum to be valid the turnout has to surpass the 50 per cent mark.

“In a country where people do not seem to be fed up by elections the boycott strategy may not work, as Alfred Sant had realised in the EU referendum,” a hunting source said.

But the federation will try to count on the backing of organisations and individuals from various interest groups that had signed up to a petition in favour of protecting minority rights collected by the FKNK last year.

Josef Camilleri, Malta Pyrotechnic Association president, yesterday told Times of Malta that members will be left to make their own decision but insisted they knew what was at stake.

“As an association we did not campaign for the FKNK or hunting, but in favour of safeguarding minority rights because we felt it was not right to hold a referendum to abolish the pastime of a minority... Our members know what is at stake and they have understood the argument in favour of minorities.”

Mr Camilleri said he was not in favour of hunting but would be forced to support the position adopted by the FKNK in the upcoming referendum.

He insisted it was not correct in a democracy to deny a group of people their enjoyment and pastime simply because they were a minority.

“I will have to do what I don’t want to, but I have to defend the rights of the minority. Today it is hunters who are being targeted by this referendum and tomorrow it could be us fireworks enthusiasts,” Mr Camilleri said.

Let us be careful what we say because it may be used against us

On the other hand, the Malta Shooting Federation would go one step further and issue directives to its members once the referendum question was clarified, according to its president Saviour Portelli.

“The issue concerns minority rights and as target shooters we are also a minority,” he said.

The federation had supported the FKNK’s petition last year, which called on politicians to change the Referenda Act and make it impossible for a referendum to be held to abolish minority rights. Mr Portelli said the federation believed in every group’s freedom to practise its pastime without the fear that someone could remove it by calling a referendum.

The Amateur Fishing Federation had last year left it up to members whether to support the FKNK petition and is expected to do the same with April’s referendum.

But federation president Frank Abela said he personally agreed with the principle that minorities should not be denied their rights.

“They should be safeguarded,” he said, adding that the referendum to abolish spring hunting was denying hunters their pastime.

Meanwhile, hunters commenting on the FKNK’s online forum were urging vigilance against illegal hunting and obedience to the federation.

One hunter going by the pseudonym Meadow encouraged others not to give up. Although hunters had an uphill struggle to win, it was not a lost cause, he added.

Meadow urged hunters to convince others “not by preaching hate but using reason” to show them that after this referendum others could be held to stop fishing, pigeon breeding, fireworks and horses from the road.

Others using the nom-de-plumes Gamiem and Dodat said members should follow the directives issued by the FKNK.

“Let us be careful what we say because it may be used against us,” they insisted.

Busuttil to wait for PN internal debate

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has declined to say how he will vote in the referendum since this might influence his party’s position.

Dr Busuttil said the PN was having an internal debate and did not want to pre-condition the outcome.

“Now that the referendum date has been set, I instructed the party to start debating this issue within its internal structures to be able to take a position as soon as possible,” he said.

But he criticised the Prime Minister for pronouncing himself in favour of spring hunting at this early stage.

He also expressed reservations on the manner in which the referendum date had been announced by the Prime Minister, saying that by law this should have been decided by the President.

Last night in Parliament Joseph Muscat explained that he had set the date for the referendum after advice from the Attorney General. The President had sought independent advice which tallied with that of the AG.

There were three choices for the date. The first was to hold a referendum in summer, but he felt the country should not have six months of campaigning. Neither did it make sense to hold it when the hunting season was under way.

That therefore only left April 11.

What is the effect of spring hunting?

Spring hunting is banned by the EU Birds Directive but the Maltese authorities have obtained an exemption each year since joining the EU in 2004, enabling its 9,798 hunters to shoot thousands of quail and turtle dove.

This means that birds flying over Malta on their annual migration to northern Europe must evade 31 licensed marksmen per square kilometre, estimated to be 15 times more than in shooting-friendly France. On one day in 2013, more than 9,000 shots were logged by Birdlife observers.

In 2009 the European Court of Justice confirmed that from 2004-2007 Malta had failed to implement the Birds Directive as too many birds were killed during the spring hunting seasons.

The birds flying from Africa to northern Europe in the spring are the strong birds, which would have survived the winter.

According to Birdlife, the hunting of these birds in spring impacts their breeding and populations.

How did the referendum come about?

More than 44,000 Maltese citizens have signed a petition calling for a referendum to be held on the traditional spring shoot.

Hunters’ organisations attempted to stop it, one of their arguments being that the referendum creates a dangerous precedent on a small island where tolerance is of the essence.

However, the Constitutional Court last Friday shot down this claim: “It is true that the right of the majority should be implemented with respect to minority rights but this is not achieved in the way the [hunters’] federation wishes, which is to prevent the public from making its voice heard in a referendum.”

In its decision, the Constitutional Court, presided over by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, last Friday found there were no grounds to prevent the referendum from going ahead.

The Coalition for the Abolition of Spring Hunting, which presented the petition for the referendum hailed the decision as ‘historic’.

When will the vote be held?

The vote is scheduled to be held on April 11, just before the spring hunting season usually starts – the result of the referendum will determine whether the season will open or not in April.

It will be held in conjunction with the local elections being held in roughly half of the localities in Malta.

For a referendum to pass, 50 per cent of the electorate plus one must vote.