The Nationalist Party has evidence that the Labour Opposition “bought votes” in several ways including by promising an amnesty to prisoners, party leader Simon Busuttil said this morning.

Interviewed by Andrew Azzopardi on Radio 101, Dr Busuttil said he was completely against the amnesty which prisoners were promised so that their family members would vote Labour.

“Such buying of votes verges on corrupt practices,” Dr Busuttil said adding that he had nothing against prisoners but an amnesty should never be used as a vote buying measure.

He said that there were other instances of vote buying through promises of a job or promotion, for example.

“Buying votes in this way is scandalous,” he said.

Earlier Dr Busuttil was asked about the Nationalist Party’s relationship with former EU Commissioner John Dalli.

He denied that the government was faster than the PN in seeking Mr Dalli’s assistance and said that the day after the police commissioner had announced there was no criminal case against Mr Dalli, PN general secretary Chris Said personally called Mr Dalli.

The party also issued a statement to acknowledge the development. The situation, Dr Busuttil said, showed that the government had an agreement in place with Mr Dalli from before the announcement was made.

At the beginning of the interview, Dr Busuttil spoke about developments within the Nationalist Party in the first 100 days, its analysis of the electoral result, the change in party leadership and rebuilding the party.

He accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of lowering ethics and of trying to find ways of increasing MPs and ministers’ pay.

Asked about the blacklisted Chinese company carrying out a feasibility study on the proposed bridge between Gozo and Malta, Dr Busuttil said that European-standard contracts usually included a clause excluding a company carrying out a feasibility study from that contract.

No such clause was included in the blacklisted company’s contract, he said.