Letters • December 21 2003

Blackmail on European Parliament election hopefuls

Edward Torpiano
Floriana
Kindly allow me to refer to the article titled, ‘Fodder for petition supporters’ (MaltaToday, December 14, 2003).
In a nutshell, the article stated that Kalkara Mayor Michael Cohen has presented a petition to the new Malta Labour Party general – secretary, (by now well-known for his antics), asking for, yet another, general conference. The signatures collector wants all eleven Malta Labour prospective candidates to be allowed to contest the European Parliament election. So far so good.
What is, however, highly questionable, was the argument used so that signatures would be collected - as indeed they were. Malta Labour Party delegates were told that the consequence of refusing seven candidates to contest on behalf of the Malta Labour Party might well induce the refused candidates, (seven in all), to contest the European Parliament election as Independent candidates.
Surely, whenever a political party takes a decision, it should see to it that any such decision, or even its reversal, is not influenced by a veiled, or not so veiled, form of blackmail, (irrespective of the outcome).