Updated 4.51pm - PL reaction
A judge has ordered the revocation of an injunction stopping the removal of the Nationalist Party’s billboards, but the PN has hit back with another injunction application, which was provisionally upheld.
Mr Justice Anthony Ellul upheld an application filed by the Planning Authority and Transport Malta calling for the revocation of the injunction because the PN had failed to follow-up its injunction with a court case within 20 days.
But minutes after this decision was handed down, the PN filed another request for an injunction after having lost the first one because it missed the deadline.
The party also filed an urgent application before the Constitutional Court, which is hearing its complaints regarding breaches to its fundamental rights asking the court to award what is known in legal jargon as an “interim measure” which basically stops the authorities from removing the billboards over which the case was filed.
The complication came about because the PN missed a deadline to initiate proceedings according to law after having first won the right to retain its billboards.
On May 10, a judge ruled that the Nationalist Party was justified in refusing to remove its billboards following a sudden change in regulations and issued an injunction stopping the authorities from removing them.
A legal notice issued on April 3 restricted political billboards to three months before an election. If the parties wanted to put up billboards outside that period, they would have to pay a licence of €1,500 per billboard, as in the case of commercial billboards.
The PN argued in court that the charges would run up to about €30,000, effectively muzzling it and stifling its freedom of expression.
'No respect for the law' - PL
The PL argued that the PN's decision to immediately file another injunction request suggested the Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil had no respect for the courts, "except when a ruling went his way."
"Rather than continue his negative campaigning, Simon Busuttil would do well to respect decisions made by national institutions, even when they aren't the decisions he was hoping for. Perhaps then he'll be taken more seriously," the party said.