Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today turned down a request made by the Opposition to have 16-year-olds cast their vote in the spring hunting abrogative referendum because, according to Dr Muscat,the process had kick-started against a set of rules which “should not be changed”.

16-year-olds will be able to vote to elect their representatives on local councils but they will be denied the right to vote in the referendum –both being held on the same day – 11 April.

Speaking in Parliament, Dr Muscat said that he was advised that once the abrogative referendum process started with a set of rules – before the law to allow 16-year-olds to vote was enacted – one must stick to them. If not, one would open himself to a challenge and goalposts would have to be changed.

Earlier, Dr Muscat said that the referendum date was chosen after he sought advice from the Attorney General. He said that the President of the Republic, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, also sought independent legal advice which confirmed the AG’s position.

The PN argued that the President should have announced the date.

He also said that nobody should be surprised at his announcement that he would be voting in favour of spring hunting since he has repeatedly said what his position was for the past seven years.

He said there were three different dates to choose from following the Constitutional Court’s decision which ruled that the referendum should be held between 9 April and 9 July this year. Either during the summer, which according to Dr Muscat is not an ideal date since the country would spend half a year campaigning which would translate in a lot of lost time, or during the spring hunting season, which he said is not a good idea either, since this may lead to intimidations from those in favour or against.  Therefore, he said, 11 April was the ideal date and the closest following the court’s ruling.

Dr Muscat said that the local council elections would be held on 11 April – on the same day of the referendum – to avoid electoral fatigue.

“For the first time, 16-year-olds would be given the right to vote – a historic move,” he said. He added that this will set the pace for a discussion to be held in future to see whether voters as young as 16 could vote in the general election as well.

In reply, PN spokesman on hunting Charlo Bonnici said that it is the PN who gave people the right to abrogative referendums and kept defending it until last year when Dr Muscat tried his best to avoid the referendum from taking place.

He said that “thankfully, the government made a U-turn and decided to go ahead with the referendum”.

“The ball is in the electorate’s court and I am sure the electorate will take the right decision and will make the right choice as it always did,” he said.

On the question which would be asked on the referendum ballot paper, Dr Muscat said that this created a problem – one which came as a result of the wording of the Referenda Act in the Maltese and English language versions as well as the Maltese and English language version of the petition asking for the referendum to be held.

The Maltese version read: Do you agree that the provisions allowing spring hunting should remain in force? He said that in that case those in favour of hunting would have to vote ‘yes’.

The English version read: Do you agree that the provisions on spring hunting should not continue to remain in force?  In this case, those in favour of hunting would have to vote 'no'.

Dr Musact said that the Maltese version prevailed after he sought advice from the AG.

The people would now be asked if the provisions allowing spring hunting should remain in force. Those who wanted spring hunting to continue should vote yes and those who did not should vote no.