The government will not amend the party financing law, as confirmed by PL Deputy Leader and Minister for the Economy Chris Cardona during the INDEPTH programme on independent.com.mt.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici believes that the Labour Party’s statute “was already compliant from the word go” and that it was amended to be “more in line with the spirit of the party financing law”, therefore he did not see any reason for amending the party financing law.

The relatively new law, enacted by the current PL government, regulates the way in which political parties receive donations – their only source of funding. The law also provides for political parties to register with the Electoral Commission under a specific set of criteria, such as what must be included in a party’s statute. Under the law, pre-existing political parties had six months to register with the Electoral Commission from when it was enacted on 1 January 2016, otherwise they could not be formally considered a political party.

In November 2016, media reports quoted an Electoral Commission representative stating that the Labour Party’s statute was not in line with the law; the PL had been informed and the Commission asked for the necessary changes to be made.

The PL had said that it needed to wait for its annual general meeting in order to amend the statue, which takes place in April of each year instead of calling an extraordinary general meeting as it did some months earlier. This year’s AGM took place earlier this week, where the PL’s statute was changed, but legal experts said that for it to register and be fully compliant with the Electoral Commission and the party financing laws, the law needs to be amended as the period during which the PL could register had lapsed.

The party financing law went into effect on 1 January 2016; the deadline to register was June 2016. However, the shortcomings in the statute, as stated by the Commission, meant that it breached its deadline for registration, in breach of the PL’s own party financing law.

The Malta Independent on Sunday asked Justice Minister Owen Bonnici whether, in view of the circumstances, it would be issuing a legal notice to amend the law in order for the PL’s registration to be in full compliance, as confirmed by Deputy Leader Chris Cardona.

“The Nationalist Party and all the other parties, applied before June, along with the Labour Party, but the PN for instance was registered after June, it was in November if I am not mistaken. So, I have a different interpretation to what you’re saying.”

Pressed on whether that means there would be no need, in his view, to amend the law, he replied: “The party financing law already provides for a number of legal notices, which have already been issued.

 “I think that the PL statute had already been compliant from the word go. The PL decided to fine tune some aspects to be more in line with the spirit of the party’s financing law, and I don’t see any problems.”

At the end of the PL’s annual general meeting, chief executive Gino Cauchi was reported as saying that the party has officially been registered as a political party under the new financing laws.

Whether this is taken to mean that the Electoral Commission accepted the PL’s registration, a full 10 months after the new financing law allows, remains unclear. This newsroom wrote to the Commission to confirm that it was unable to accept the party’s registration without amendments to the financing law; however, it failed to acknowledge the questions and at the time of going to print, no answers were received.

PL Finance Law from The Malta Independent on Vimeo.

In March, Dr Cardona said on the programme INDEPTH that the government will be changing the party financing law just after 10 months in existence in order to give it a second chance to register. Minister Cardona conceded that the government needs to issue a legal notice to amend the law after the PL holds its national conference in which it will make the necessary changes to its statute to be able to register with the electoral commission.

He insisted that the PL was the first to file an application but the Electoral Commission demanded changes to the PL’s statute for it to conform to party financing law. Such changes were not effected within the period stipulated by law and the PL remains the sole party defying the historic new legislation it pioneered.