The Green Party yesterday complained it has been refused permission to broadcast a television programme on a private station explaining its electoral programme for the forthcoming European Parliamentary elections.

"Democracy is evidently not one of the country's strengths," Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola told party faithful at an activity yesterday.

"All we asked for is the opportunity to have one or two programmes to promote the policies and campaign of our party," he said. "But incredibly and unfairly, the Broadcasting Authority, whose board is made up of people appointed by the Nationalist Party and Labour Party, while letting One TV and Net TV broadcast partisan programmes and political adverts, ruled that AD cannot transmit programmes promoting its issues."

He said it was also unacceptable that the debate on how the country's sixth seat in the EP would be assigned was still undecided, in spite of the approaching elections.

"The governing party is abusing democracy. Fairness and transparency are simply not high on the government's agenda."

In fact, on this point, he also referred to the striking off of over 900 non-Maltese voters from the EP election electoral register because they failed to re-register their name from the last election in 2004.

He said this confirmed that the concept of participation in the democratic process was still perceived as a privilege conceded by some authority or other rather than a right.