St Hubert Hunters (KSU) accused Alternattiva Demokratika of being intent on abusing 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.

In an open letter to Members of Parliament, KSU refers to the hunting situation in Malta and says that the hunting referendum petition has struggled to gather 40,000 signatures within eight months, while according to media report the petition opposing it collected twice the number in half the time.

This, it said, clearly showed that a large sector of the Maltese public saw right through the “vile opportunism” of Birdlife Malta that lobbied for a ban on legal hunting using totally unrelated illegal incidents to garner support and was sick and tired of their deceit and damaging publicity.

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

It would also exemplify 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 elected by at least 50 per cent plus one of the voting population.

“With a spring hunting referendum petition being considered and 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, is 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.”

The open letter can be read in the pdf link below.