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Kurt Sansone
Expressing surprise and disgust at the report presented by the Electoral Commission on district changes, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday said the Commission’s redrawing of the electoral districts to try and mimic proportionality based on local election results was based on warped logic.
The prime pinister was speaking to the media in his monthly press briefing, yesterday.
The Chief Electoral Commissioner’s report was endorsed by the Labour Party’s representatives on the Commission but shunned by the Nationalist Party members, who drew up their own minority report.
Among the salient changes proposed by the Chief Electoral Commissioner is the inclusion of Ghajnsielem with the twelfth district, the swapping of Swieqi with Gzira in the tenth and ninth electoral district, the inclusion of Marsaxlokk and Ghaxaq with the fourth Paola district and the swapping of Fgura and Zabbar in the second and third electoral districts.
Gonzi said the new electoral districts will be submitted in Parliament for discussion next week but expressed disgust at the Chief Electoral Commissioner’s decision to redraw the districts based on local election results, which Gonzi charged was not a Constitutional obligation.
“Transposing local election results on a national basis to the extent of redrawing the districts to reflect proportionality is the fruit of warped logic,” Gonzi said.
The revision of electoral districts because of population changes is a Constitutional obligation imposed on the Electoral Commission.
St George’s Bay concession
During the briefing Gonzi touched on a number of issues including the beach concession granted to the Intercontinental Hotel at the newly created St George’s Bay.
He confirmed that the concession, granted after a competitive tender, includes an exclusive private area for the hotel’s guests. The hotel will however be responsible for the management and upkeep of the entire beach, which will remain accessible to the public.
Asked by journalists whether this part-privatisation of Malta’s beaches was Government policy, Gonzi said the concept would be applied to other beaches. He also added that Government’s target is to create more sandy beaches like St George’s Bay, possibly one new beach every year.
Taxes
Asked by MaltaToday whether Government was considering introducing new taxes or raising already existing ones to meet its ERM II targets, Gonzi described as “pure invention” reports in the British press that Malta was going to introduce new taxes.
“Our targets are laid out in the convergence plan and we intend achieving them. But there is a false perception that Malta is one of the highest taxed countries in Europe. When one takes into consideration the whole tax burden including national insurance, income tax, VAT, health insurance and other taxes, Malta is not highly taxed. This does not mean Government has the intention of increasing income tax and national insurance,” Gonzi said.
As for the money raked in from privatisation, Government will be using the proceeds to placate rising debt, which will in turn help reduce recurrent expenditure on debt servicing.
Talking about competitiveness the Prime Minister warned that if a referendum to remove the public holidays provisions introduced earlier this year is to go ahead, he would react by removing a number of public holidays altogether.
The abrogative referendum was proposed by the GWU and is currently being discussed by all the unions.
Shifting to port reforms, Gonzi said Malta’s port charges were among the highest in Europe. “The process has to be radically reviewed. We have a duty to strengthen competitiveness by reducing port expenses,” Gonzi said.
Medicines and abortion
Gonzi also announced Government was internally discussing ways and means of controlling expenditure on medicine, which he said was rising exponentially. “We are analysing the way we purchase medicines because they represent an alarming increase in expenditure,” Gonzi said.
Asked about the proposal floated by Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg for anti-abortion laws to be entrenched in the Constitution, Gonzi said this was not a response to any immediate crisis. “The proposal was made by the pro-life lobby and Government took the initiative to propose a Constitutional clause. We want this proposal to be the fruit of a national movement and so we have to let the debate mature,” Gonzi said.
kurt@newsworksltd.com
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