Michael Falzon (TMID 30 December) rests his case when he has no case to rest. Mr Falzon’s reasons that a possible sixth observer seat for the European Parliament elections should be awarded using a strictly proportional division of first count votes.

Using the same reasoning for national elections would mean that AD should have elected one national MP in the 1992, 1996 and, possibly, 1998 general elections. Unfortunately for AD, the Maltese electoral STV system does not work like that and we have borne the brunt of this unjust system since our inception.

It is supremely ironic that Mr Falzon now wants to do away with the STV system and go for strict first count proportionality on the occasion of the European Parliament elections where, if six seats were available, AD would have beaten the system by winning the sixth seat.

For once I must agree with Mr Falzon that “in a democracy…what matters is the number of votes” and, in this case, Arnold Cassola won more votes than Joanne Drake at all stages of the EP election count to remain the sixth candidate, unelected, but not eliminated according to the official result of the EP elections. I insist that the mathematics show that this result would hold even taking into consideration a recalculated quota.

Further correspondence on this subject is superfluous until this theoretical sixth observer seat materialises. I then look forward to continuing the debate on who deserves this seat when Mr Falzon, the PN and its MEPs have shown that they are capable of refraining from partisan pique by acting in the national interest and taking concrete initiatives to obtain the sixth observer seat for Malta.

Stephen Cachia

Secretary General

AD-The Green Party