The hunting lobby is calling on the government to hold a stand-alone spring hunting referendum.
Hunters’ federation (FKNK) president Joe Perici Calascione yesterday said he expected the referendum not to be tied to any other national votes.
“I expect a stand-alone referendum, because that is when people really voice their opinion on an issue – not when a vote is held together with something completely unrelated,” he said.
He was speaking ahead of a march in Valletta today in which the FKNK is expected to present a petition calling on the government to prevent the Referenda Act being used to trample on “minority rights and practices”.
The campaign was triggered by a successful drive by the Coalition Against Spring Hunting to force an abrogative referendum to abolish spring hunting.
The coalition gathered some 40,000 signatures – 7,000 more than the 10 per cent of the electorate required by law – to hold a referendum. These are currently being scrutinised by the Electoral Commission.
Many expected an eventual referendum to be held alongside the round of local council elections in 2015.
However, the hunters’ call for a freestanding vote could be met after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday proposed tying local council elections with the next European Parliament vote in 2019, because of electoral fatigue.
The move would effectively extend the mandate of 34 councils by two years and leave no other national votes to be tied with the hunting referendum. Mr Perici Calascione said if the anti-hunting lobby wanted to “put its money where its mouth is” it should have no problem in having an independent vote.
The Prime Minister has already quashed rumours that he could change the referenda goalposts for the proposed vote on spring hunting.
Asked if the petition’s demands still stood, Mr Perici Calascione insisted that the need to protect minority groups went beyond the hunting referendum.
“This is not just about hunting. It is about all the minority groups who fear they could be threatened by (a majority of) people who don’t agree with them,” he said, adding that he personally feared the poll on spring hunting could be the first of several anti-hunting votes.
Among the signatories, he said, were horse owners, shooting sports enthusiasts and fireworks aficionados.
For the first time, he also gave an indication of how many signatures the hunters had collected when asked to react to a comment by Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon, who said the government could be faced with a petition of 100,000 signatures.
The FKNK president was still coy about the exact figure but said it was more than double the 40,000 signatures collected by the other side.
Instead of using the signatures to block the proposed referendum, however, Mr Perici Calascione said the FKNK would be lobbying parliamentarians to support the federation in the event of a referendum.
“I can’t tell the Prime Minister what to do, but I can expect the government, including Dr Muscat, to back our cause.
“The same is true for Simon Busuttil and the Opposition. We expect their support on this issue,” he said.