Upholding democracy

In his article "Of U-turns and challenges" (September 25) Desmond Zammit Marmarà made the following statement:

"Alfred Sant has earned the respect of all those who cherish democracy by immediately accepting the people's verdict on the EU issue as soon as the result of the April 12 election became known".

How in heaven's name can Mr Zammit Marmarà expect anybody to take this outrageous statement seriously when, only six weeks before the April 12 election, Dr Sant had trampled on our country's democracy?

Not only did Dr Sant ignore the result of the EU referendum of March 8, he also turned the result upside down and converted it into a "victory" for his party by a monstrous calculation whereby a positive referendum (by a majority of 19,000) was converted into a negative referendum.

Just in case Mr Zammit Marmarà has conveniently forgotten the facts, 93 per cent of the electorate voted in spite of Dr Sant's undemocratic efforts to torpedo the referendum by exhorting MLP supporters not to participate, or to deface their ballot paper.

As for the general election itself, has Mr Zammit Marmarà forgotten Dr Sant's last-minute attempts at bribing the electorate with a two-month tax holiday? No, this is not the stuff of democracy. Dr Sant accepted "the people's verdict on the EU", because he now had no choice. He realised too late that he was swimming against the tide and that his only chance lay in making yet another U-turn of convenience to save his political skin.

Besides, how can one be sure that Dr Sant, after having already made so many U-turns, will not make yet another U-turn and take us out of the EU if he is elected to government at the next election?