However sophisticated or convoluted the mathematics being bandied around with regard to the referendum result, the following facts shall always remain - the referendum was legally and legitimately launched on the basis of a valid law approved by parliament.

All voters were conversant with the rules, namely, that the outcome would be based on the comparative numbers of valid yes and no votes.

All voters were free to choose whether to exercise their right to vote or not. Consequently, all voters who actively participated in the referendum voting process, whether by voting yes or no, by that very action acknowledged and confirmed the legitimacy of the referendum. The proper course of action by voters who objected to the referendum was for them to abstain from participating in, or to boycott, the voting process.

Some 91 per cent of all registered voters actively participated in the referendum, in contrast to the less than nine per cent who "actively" abstained. Thus, the validity and legitimacy of the result of the referendum has been confirmed by an overwhelming 9:1 of all registered voters.

Alfred Sant publicly abstained from voting and so is morally free to criticise the referendum process. But this will never change the reality that his stand as party leader has been totally undermined by the simple reason that practically all MLP supporters - including at least two high ranking party members, namely, George Vella and Joe Brincat - by the very act of placing their vote in the ballot box, fully acknowledged and confirmed the validity of the entire referendum process.

All members of parliament - including Dr Sant, if re-elected - from here on must now take cognisance of the people's decision, freely and legitimately taken, that Malta proceeds unhindered to completion of the EU accession process.