The Broadcasting Authority has categorically denied creating an imbalance in the political broadcast schedule it adopted in the run-up to the European Parliament election, saying it was in accordance with the Constitution and the Broadcasting Act and its decision was final.

It was reacting to Nationalist Party general secretary Paul Borg Olivier's accusations that the authority was reducing the EP election campaign to "political teleshopping" by imposing a five-minute time limit on partisan productions.

Dr Borg Olivier had said that during previous election campaigns, time was allocated according to the number of candidates a party had and its results in the previous election.

The authority yesterday rebutted his claims, saying the schedule it had originally proposed to the political parties some weeks ago, which included time for party productions and a final debate between the PN, Labour, Alternattiva Demokratika and Azzjoni Nazzjonali leaders, was structured on the schedule it had launched for the 2004 EP elections.

When presented, no political party had found a problem with it, the authority said in a letter to Dr Borg Olivier.

Dr Borg Olivier had said the authority changed the established practice without explaining why, or revealing the new criteria it was using.

But the authority insisted it had practically kept the same proportions that it had established before the last general election in terms of the distribution of time to political parties.

The authority said it had seriously considered the representations of the political parties when the first version of the schedule was circulated and revised it where possible so that the final result would include a number of political spots allocated to the parties on a proportional basis.

The BA said it could not accept the request to increase these, since it had obligations to its viewers not to bombard them with political messages for weeks on end.

The schedule included five political debates and one between the PN and Labour leaders, which were considered enough in the circumstances.

The PN yesterday issued a statement backing Dr Borg Olivier's complaints, claiming the BA was limiting the rights of the people to choose the best representative by reducing the time for debates and political spots from the schedule of political broadcasts.

It requested an explanation for the BA's "inconsistency" in the drafting of the schedule.