Elected MEPs have shed light on a loophole in the electoral law that exonerated them from taking the oath when submitting their expenses declaration to the Electoral Commission.
All the candidates in the EP election held on June 6 took the oath as prescribed on the Commission's form, except for the five elected MEPs, Joseph Cuschieri who has observer status and the unelected Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas.
The seven candidates who did not take the oath declared their expenses to be within the legal limit of €18,635. On the other hand, unelected Nationalist Party candidates Edward Demicoli and Frank Portelli, as well as Labour Party candidate Sharon Ellul Bonnici admitted to exceeding the limit by tens of thousands of euros.
When asked why they had not taken an oath, PL MEPs Louis Grech, John Attard Montalto and Edward Scicluna, together with Joseph Cuschieri, once again chose to ignore The Sunday Times' questions.
Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil said he did not take the oath because it was not a legal requirement, while counterpart David Casa failed to respond.
Ms Metsola Tedesco Triccas said her representative signed her campaign expenses declaration on her behalf due to the fact that she returned to her job in Brussels on June 13. She said the electoral law permitted this.
The oath issue brings to the fore the difference between the Maltese and English versions of the law.
The English version of the Electoral (Polling) Ordinance, Chapter 102, Article 50 (3) states: "The return shall be accompanied by declarations to be made on oath before a magistrate by the candidate and his election agent".
The same article in the Maltese version of the law says the oath must be taken by the candidate or his agent. Based on this, the seven candidates chose not to take the oath.
The form provided to candidates by the Electoral Commission contains on its front page two declarations to be accompanied by an oath - one for the candidate and the other for the agent.
The declaration for the candidates reads: "I do hereby swear that the return of election expenses is true to the best of my knowledge and belief, and that, except the expenses therein set out, no expense of any nature whatsoever have to my knowledge or belief been incurred in connection with or for the purposes of my candidature."
The Attorney General has so far declined to state whether he will look into the MEPs' declarations.
When The Sunday Times conducted an analysis of campaign expenditure, it had revealed that at least eight candidates appeared to have exceeded the limit. It also emerged that Dr Attard Montalto seemed to be the biggest spender.
Dr Attard Montalto declaration states that he spent €1,400 on printing and €14,590 on advertising, totalling €15,990. By comparison, PN candidate Edward Demicoli, who always said his campaign was "by far" one of the least expensive, declared printing costs at €4,913 and advertising costs at €18,424.
Several unelected candidates from both sides of the political divide last week used terms such as "pathetic", "ridiculous" and "cheeky" to describe the MEPs' declarations.