The hunting lobby is urging those threatening to “abstain out of protest” to head to the polls as “a boycott is not an option”, according to a Yes vote campaigner.

Hunting federation lawyer Kathleen Grima told Times of Malta the lobby had encountered individual hunters and other voters who said they would not vote in Saturday’s referendum.

These people, she said, were either doing so out of some form of protest or felt the lobby stood a better chance of winning through a mass abstention.

For the referendum result to be effective, 50 per cent plus one of eligible electors will have to cast a vote. Failure to reach this quota would render the referendum invalid.

Sources close to the hunting fraternity told this newspaper the lobby was coming under increased pressure from hunters who were having doubts about whether heading to the polls was the best option.

Hunters would be committing ‘electoral suicide’ if they boycotted the vote

Asked about this, Dr Grima said she had no knowledge of any growing pressure or a movement towards an abstention. The lobby was committed to urging people to head to the polls.

When asked whether she was ruling out an abstention, she said only that she would definitely be voting in favour of retaining spring hunting.

Electoral experts contacted by Times of Malta at the start of the campaign had given mixed reactions to the possibility of an abstention.

One expert said hunters would be committing “electoral suicide” if they boycotted the vote while another said one of the main challenges for the No campaign would be encouraging voters to head to the polls. He had argued that this was not a “bread and butter” issue and many would simply not be interested.

Although unconventional, it would not be the first time a lobby group has called for an abstention. Former Labour leader Alfred Sant had 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 had called on voters to abstain on Dom Mintoff’s integration referendum in 1956. In both, the result was a ‘yes’ vote.