It is not the law that is an ass!

In one of his many press conferences, Alfred Sant has justified his incredible interpretation of the referendum result by stating that the referendum process is different from the general election process. He claimed that for the latter there are constitutional rules which determine how the result is arrived at and that these rules do not apply to a "consultative referendum".

Dr Sant seems to have an exceedingly short memory. Or maybe none of his MPs have enough courage to jog it. It may also be that Dr Sant is conveniently forgetting that last October the Malta Labour Party formally agreed to how the referendum votes were to be counted.

Last year the government moved a bill to amend the Referenda Act. Whilst the amendments were many, what concerns us today is that the bill provided that the rules governing the counting of votes in general elections would equally apply to referenda. Adjustments were obviously made to cater for the different ways in which the voter expresses his vote. But the basic counting method and calculation of the result remained the same. Most crucially, it was proposed that only valid votes would be taken into account to arrive at the result. Abstentions and invalid votes were to be disregarded.

In other words, the government's proposal was that the general elections system would apply to all "consultative" (and "abrogative", for that matter) referenda.

What Dr Sant is conveniently forgetting is that six months ago, he and his party voted in favour of the government's proposal! Parliamentary minutes, which I consulted this morning, show that at committee stage - where the proposal was discussed, article by article - the Labour Party not only refrained from opposing a single article but actually agreed to each one. More importantly, when the third and decisive vote was taken in the House, the Malta Labour Party agreed to the bill. This means one thing and one thing only: they voted in favour of the system proposed by the government.

In October, 2002 Dr Sant and all his members of parliament voted in favour of having a system for referenda in which only valid votes are taken into account in declaring a result. On Saturday, when the system they agreed to was implemented and produced a defeat for Labour, Dr Sant chose to "forget" his agreement to the system!

Therefore, it is not true - as Dr Sant is saying - that there are no constitutional procedures that govern referenda; it is not true - as Dr Sant is stating - that the rules for general elections are different from the rules governing referenda; it is not true - as Dr Sant is stating - that there is no law which regulates the counting of votes in referenda.

What is true is that only six months ago Dr Sant and his whole party agreed that the counting of votes in referenda should be on the same lines as in general elections and that only valid votes are taken into account in arriving at the result.

It is said that "the law is an ass". In this case, someone, not the law, certainly is!