Last week’s referendum on whether the law of divorce should be introduced in Malta should not be considered valid because the subject of divorce was completely mixed with boosting a political party’s image. People did not vote according to their beliefs on the subject of marriage because a great number of them were motivated to favour a political party. 

I asked a friend why he voted yes and he said right away he had done so because the PL leader was in favour of divorce. This shows clearly that my friend and thousands of other voters from the PL side voted yes to boost the image of the party and had they abided by their independent views on divorce they would have voted no. 

This is confirmed because the Yes voters were in great majority from the south where there are most PL supporters. This could not be said about the PN supporters because they didn’t need to boost the image of the party that is still in government. 

Maltese people’s views and voting on divorce legislation consisted of a great number of voters who did not think deeply, and preferred to favour their party’s image. 

Had the party leaders not expressed their views on divorce, the majority of Maltese people would have voted No.

John Haber