The hunters’ federation in a statement short of comment has published a list claiming its members’ vote strength is of 17,816.
The federation said that number did not include hunters’ families and a further 4,000 trappers who were not given the chance to acquire a licence when the government stopped issuing licences for trapping in 2002.
In a district by district break-down of the votes held by hunters, the federation said Gozo was the biggest district with 3,000 votes, followed by 2,460 votes in the seventh district (which incudes Rabat and Dingli) and 1,304 votes in the 12th district (which includes Mellieha but does not, contrary to the hunters’ list, include Ghajnsielem).