It will be one of the longest – if not the longest – ballot sheet ever. With no fewer than 34 names, the Electoral Commission had a headache to find ways and means how to fit them all into one sheet, considering that security paper has its limits.
Who knows, maybe the commission came up with the idea of having a smaller font size to have them all in. So those voters with poor eyesight had better take their glasses with them, or else they might end up voting for the wrong party.
Well, it will not be the first time that mistakes have happened – the MEPs themselves sometimes voted against their wishes, although in their case they had the possibility to change their vote. Voters in the EP election of next week (or tomorrow if they are going to be abroad on 6 June) will not have this option.
The Electoral Commission faced another problem. With some of the candidates sporting long names and surnames – including one who has three surnames, and another who has two names and two surnames – there were difficulties with the width of the ballot sheet too. But, of course, in this case one can have the full name over two or more lines, rather than across the whole length.
An even smaller font size could have been considered, but this would have been discriminatory, no? Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas – her name grows with each election – would have surely complained.
The European Parliament election to be held next week will be a first in terms of the number of political parties that are taking part – an unprecedented 10. In national elections, the largest number of political parties contesting was five – in 1947, 1950 and 1962.
Five years ago, when the first EP election was held, there were seven parties that contested, along with five independent candidates, for a total of 27 participants.
This time, independent candidates are “missing”, in the sense that some of them have opted to “form” their own one-man show, rather than contest as independent. Probably they think that belonging to a “party”, whatever that means to them, gives them a better chance.
And so we have Nazzareno Bonnici, who will fly the flag of the Partit tal-Ajkla, when five years ago he was an independent candidate. “Where Eagles Dare” could well be his motto.
Since 2004, we have also had the “separation” of pro-divorce lawyer Emmy Bezzina and John Zammit. The former will be contesting on behalf of the party he founded, the Alpha Liberal Democratic Party, while the latter will be on top of the ballot sheet as his Alleanza Liberali is the first, in alphabetical order, of the parties contesting.
It is rather amusing that some people think that by being on top of the list they stand a better opportunity of grabbing a few votes. And so we have four parties starting with an “A” – the other two are the more popular Alternattiva Demokratika and Azzjoni Nazzjonali.
If Mr Bonnici had thought it out better, and called his formation the Ajkla Party – instead of Partit tal-Ajkla – he would have been at the top of the ballot sheet. As it is, he has been placed at the bottom, below the Partit Nazzjonalista.
Imperium Ewropa’s Norman Lowell is not on his own this time, as he will be accompanied on the IE’s list by Ruben Attard. It’s curious that the man who has championed Mr Lowell’s legal battles, Dr Bezzina, will be one of his rivals. Maybe they have even made bets against each other as to who will pick the most votes.
The Bezzina-Zammit schism – my, my, what a word to use to describe the break-up of a two-man party – was not the only one that took place, as Mary Gauci has left Azzjoni Nazzjonali to form her own Libertas Malta, leaving Josie Muscat to contend the election with Malcolm Seychell and John Frederick Spiteri Gingell (here’s another long name).
For AD, Arnold Cassola will try to repeat his performance of five years ago together with Yvonne Ebejer Arqueros.
The other small party is Kul Ewropa – is it something to do with food or has its sole representative Cecil Herbert Jones been taken over by the sms way of writing words, and meant “cool”? His appearance does give one the impression that he is, well, so cool.
This leaves us with the two big parties, with Labour fielding 12 candidates and the Nationalist Party 10. These 22 have had great exposure as the parties they represent own television and radio stations and newspapers, and have a well-oiled party machine to back them.
Funnily enough, while the PN and PL, as parties, are fighting each other over who has managed to achieve the most for Malta in the EP, the candidates are at the throat of their fellow-party contestants, not their opponents.
You can’t really blame them, can you? After all, the post will pay even better from the next EP term, some e84,000 a year, apart from generous perks. Once they’re there, what do they care about pressing the right buttons?
scalleja@independent.com.mt
