Employees of Papillon Caterers told a court today that they had never been threatened to vote Nationalst at the last general elections.

They were giving evidence in the case instituted against Papillon director Pierre Bartolo, 44, following allegations by former employee Anthony Zammit and Labour MP Anglu Farrugia.

Police Inspector Anthony Portelli told the Court how Dr Farrugia had submitted a report to the police claiming that Labour Party supporters had been threatened to vote PN.

Unrelated to the report, the police spoke to 32 people who allegedly took photos of their ballot paper with their mobile phone, but all of these said that they were not threatened.

Inspector Portelli said he had spoken to employee Edwin Cioffi, one of the persons indicted by Mr Zammit, and he had denied the allegations made by Mr Zammit. He said he could not imagine why Mr Zammit had involved him, because they were very close friends. Certainly, he never told anyone how to vote.

Clifton Demanuele, another employee, said none of the allegations made by Mr Zammit were true. Nobody spoke to him about how they should vote and no one made any threats in his presence. He said they used to talk politics, especially as the elections approached, but that was normal.

Mr Demanuele said Mr Zammit used to change his version of things, depending on who he was speaking to.

Roderick Abela, another employee, described Mr Zammit as a ‘liar’ He said the relationship between Mr Bartolo and the employees was very good and they always spoke openly,

Inspector Portelli asked him to explain how in a police statement he said there had been threats to vote PN.

Mr Abela said that was all in the atmosphere of the elections and there was nothing unusual about it.

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090212/local/accused-of-forcing-staff-to-vote-pn/