Lino Spiteri (like others) omits to mention the most relevant events, of which he must have been aware, which are central to the issue of whether there was a justified fear of a coup d'etat during the counting of votes in the general election of 1987.

Let me first make some points clear:

The fear of a coup was recorded by a journalist of Corriere della Sera who was briefed, together with other journalists, at the very moment that this fear emerged. It was never challenged. I only reproduced the article, because I shared the fear.

A coup d'etat is an illegal change of government which need not be military or violent in character. Recent events in Kenya have shown how manipulating the counting of votes could produce a coup d'etat. The present situation in Kenya is a consequence of that coup.

Mr Spiteri, and all those who are now seeking to dismiss the Corriere report, conveniently make no mention of the MLP's unprecedented request for the vote-counting to be suspended for four hours, when this unjustified request was the very basis of the fear that the counting process could be tampered with.

Of all people, Mr Spiteri should be the one not to query the justification of the fear of such manipulation, since an MLP member has claimed that Mr Spiteri himself was the victim of such a practice in the party election to succeed Dr Mifsud Bonnici as leader of the MLP.

As Mr Spiteri says, let us not paper over these facts. We should also include the facts that the fear of an attempt to disrupt the counting of votes was expressed by Dr Mifsud Bonnici himself, and the sudden presence at the counting hall of a strong contingent of police, which had lost all credibility as a force of law and order, to the extent that the then Prime Minister had passed the overall responsibility for it to the armed forces.