Top News • November 30 2003

Former eurosceptic rocks MLP euro-boat

Defeated Labour candidates Sharon Ellul Bonici and Manuel Cuschieri are so upset with their non-election to the MLP European Parliament candidature ticket that they are hoping the outcome will be overturned.
Their hopes have been taken up by Kalkara Mayor Michael Cohen, who is lobbying for the Party’s decision to field only four candidates at the European Parliament elections to be changed. He is petitioning delegates to pressure the party into holding another general conference to approve the other seven candidates that were defeated in the election.
One of the beneficiaries would be former euro-sceptic Sharon Ellul Bonici, who is adamant her name should be on the Labour ticket in June.
Talking to MaltaToday yesterday, Ellul Bonici said the petition already enjoyed the support of 55 per cent of the delegates.
"Irrespective of whether the petition is accepted by the executive or not, the general conference has to be held because the petition has the necessary approval of the delegates," Ellul Bonici said.
The former eurosceptic, who was initially blocked by the MLP vigilance and discipline board only to be admitted as a prospective candidate on appeal, is embittered at the 70 per cent threshold which left her and six other candidates clutching for straws.
Of the 11 prospective candidates only four managed to get elected by surpassing the quota, and Ellul Bonici, Manuel Cuschieri and Super One editor Gino Cauchi did not make the mark for a whisker.

"There is a general feeling among Labourites that the number of candidates should increase," Ellul Bonici said.
Since the MLP general conference that selected the EP election-candidates rumours have been rife that Manuel Cuschieri and Sharon Ellul Bonici might decide to go solo and contest the election as independents. Last week Ellul Bonici told MaltaToday that she did not want to comment "for the time being."
MaltaToday has seen a copy of the petition proposed by Michael Cohen and seconded by Gozitan Josephine Camilleri. The petition is calling for the holding of a general conference before December in which all the seven candidates that did not pass the 70 per cent threshold would be approved.
Delegates speaking to this newspaper have interpreted Mr Cohen’s move as a sign of solidarity with former president Manuel Cuschieri, whom he admires a lot.
In the petition Mr Cohen says it is important that Labour fields as many candidates as possible to attract a wide spectrum of voters in June. It also states that the party should have at least one Gozitan candidate and one female candidate. The petition also ends with a veiled warning that certain candidates who failed to surpass the 70 per cent threshold could decide to contest the EP election as independents thus splitting the Labour vote.
In his quest, Mr Cohen has no backing from the leadership trio, who insist that the number of candidates should not increase.
Another argument being made by the party leadership against the proposed petition is that a general conference cannot statutorily overrule an election result.