Michael Falzon (TMID 24 December) insists on misrepresenting the mathematical figures I gave in my original letter. I will not bore your readers with further mathematical arguments in what is ultimately just an academic exercise.

However, for such a seasoned politician, Mr Falzon displays a remarkable lack of knowledge of the intricacies of the STV system. Thus he assumes that the extra votes available to the PN due to a lower quota if a sixth seat was available would ultimately all fall into Joanne Drake’s lap.

This flies in the face of what happened during the election count last June when (i) a significant proportion of PN first count voters did not transfer their votes to all PN candidates in subsequent counts and (ii) another significant proportion of PN voters crossed over to AD in subsequent counts.

At no stage during last June’s count did Joanne Drake overtake Arnold Cassola in the number of votes obtained. It is clear that such a statistical pattern would have been followed even with a different quota assuming a theoretical extra sixth seat, since proportionally Joanna Drake’s gains – because of the reduced quota – would have been countered on the other hand by Arnold Cassola’s proportionate gains.

At the end of the day, I repeat, this is just a futile academic exercise if the sixth observer seat for Malta does not materialise. I invite Mr Falzon and the PN to take the initiative for concrete action among their parliamentary group in the European Parliament to support the granting of this observer seat in the national interest.

Following that, there should be an interesting debate about who deserves that seat. We feel that the vast majority of Maltese and Gozitans agree that the seat should go to Arnold Cassola, the candidate who, according to the official election results for the 2004-2009 European Parliament legislature, ended up sixth in last June’s election without being eliminated.

If, at that stage, the PN leadership would like to demonstrate once again that 15 years of power has led them to new heights of arrogance and conceit by claiming a seat they do not deserve, that is a choice they can make. It would, however, be a choice for which I am sure the electorate would make them pay a hefty political price.

Stephen Cachia

Secretary General

AD-The Green Party