Shop owners demand compensation

The Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprise - GRTU is collecting a list of claims with regard to business lost by shops not allowed to open this morning due to the European Parliament and local council elections.

Unless the government provided some form of compensation, the GRTU intended to take legal action, director general Vince Farrugia said yesterday.

According to law, the Electoral Commission has to prohibit public places, including shops, within 50 metres of polling booths from opening for business on election days.

Chief electoral commissioner Carmel Degabriele said yesterday this was laid down in a law that had been enacted a long time ago. This provision, he said, was not changed when other amendments were made to the law.

He said he believed there was room for improvement but a decision had to be taken following an agreement by both sides of the House, which should sit around a table and see what was still relevant in today's circumstances.

Mr Farrugia said that when the government budgeted for an election it should also consider compensation to shop owners made to close down their business for the day.

He said that for some businesses Saturday was the best day and in some cases the 50-metre zone included the only pharmacy in the area.

Tension in polling booths was nowadays hardly an issue and if businessmen were made to lose one day's work they had to be compensated for it, he insisted.

And if a security threat did exist in certain areas to the extent that shops in the vicinity had to be kept closed, the government should locate the polling station elsewhere.

Some businesses, Mr Farrugia said, paid rent on their premises on a daily basis. They also had to pay wages to employees and the government could not expect them to just shoulder the costs.

EU membership, he said, should have given the people more rights and the GRTU was determined to follow up the issue.

Shop owners in Old Bakery Street, Valletta within the 50-metre zone of the Johann Strauss School of Music polling station had differing views on the matter.

Jeweller Joseph Sciberras said he agreed that shops within polling station areas should be closed on election days as, otherwise, political parties might utilise the shops for their canvassing.

Most shops only opened in the mornings on Saturdays and the principle of "prevention is better than cure" should always be applied, he added.

Thomas and Mario Tabone, of Marthom Shoe Store, said they did not agree at all that shops should be made to close. "This is an antiquated law and shop owners would not be influencing voters by opening their shops." They said that, luckily, even though this was peak time for their business, Father's Day fell on the following weekend; had it been tomorrow, the effect would have been more damaging.

The Tabones said that a solution had to be found especially now that elections were being held more frequently.

Ray Grixti, of Lurak Ltd, said that although he did not open on Saturdays he did not agree with the law.