Malta Song Board chairman Robert Abela has defended the way the preliminaries for next year’s Song for Europe were handled.

Replying to a hard-hitting e-mail from Grace Borg, Mr Abela said that as already declared publicly, and as the regulations also stated, not less than one public notary and not less than one certified public auditor plus himself as chairman were present when the votes were counted. In fact, two notaries were brought in to make the whole process even more transparent.

Ms Borg had addressed Mr Abela in his capacity as chairman of a public board “and therefore as such accountable,” she reminded him, “part of your duties is to face and publicly discuss those who question or challenge the operations of your board.”

She reminded him that “one of your board members on Eileen Montesin’s Saturday TV show, the same person who was so euphoric in the programme Dopo Festival 2007, that “we can now organise the Eurovision because we have a big tent” (little minds, Ms Borg commented, “some people find reasons everywhere to rejoice”), said it is immoral that young talent is mixed with already established artists. He compared a minor league football player playing in the premier league.

Ms Borg said she agreed with Mr Demanuele’s comment but, she added, let us remember that the Malta Song for Europe is almost the only showcase we have locally. Young talent uses this experience as a springboard for the years to come. Like everything in life, few will make it and others will not. To keep with Mr Demanuele’s terminology, not every football player makes it to the national team.

Ms Borg claimed “premeditated” discrimination between the two associations involved – UKAM and AKAM. While UKAM was present for the whole three days, AKAM was present only for two hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. Furthermore, the AKAM representative was only granted permission to enter the hall after showing the e-mail from Mr Abela to the board’s secretary.

The AKAM representative was not present at the counting of votes.

Ms Borg added that rumours are flying that one of the two public notaries present for the counting was in fact a UKAM representative.

When asked on Wednesday when the votes would be counted, Mr Abela had said the results would be published on Saturday’s TV programme. Ms Borg asked why Mr Abela had to wait until Saturday afternoon when the results were out on Thursday evening.

She also asked who was involved in the counting and why the counting of votes was carried out behind the jury’s back.

She added: “Can anyone tell us what the role of Peter Busuttil was in the hall as he is not a board member?”

She said the sound was not up to standard and there were complaints from the artists and also asked why the same contractors who had let the board down in 2006 had been contracted again.

The CD by Mauro Kitcher, who was disqualified, was actually OK: it was the CD player that rejected the CD.

Ms Borg added that when she was Malta Song Board chairman, those members who were not doing their job properly were asked to resign, as tolerance for wrongdoing was zero.

She said she had advised the minister not to reinstate a member on the board and she was recently proved right about this person.

A member who was leaking information was asked to resign and another member who was being pressurised by parents of some participants also resigned.

Having a board member collecting large sums of money as sponsorship from local artists to participate as guests on a local TV programme is a conflict of interest especially when these “guests” do take part in the Malta Song for Europe.