There was agreement with PN on ‘rolling register’ too - PL

Labour spokesperson Michael Falzon was reacting to statements made by Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami on the radio programme ‘Ghandi xi Nghid’ on proposals of a ‘rolling register’.

Falzon said that on this point there was agreement, as there was on other amendments that would facilitate voting for those Maltese seeking to exercise their right.

Falzon however said, that contrary to what Fenech Adami stated, it was the Nationalist party that had opposed various proposals by the PL made in this regard, such as the voting in San Vincenz De Paule – “a proposal which was far more simple and dignified for the home’s residents.”

Referring to the Select Committee, Falzon maintained that it was government that had “killed it” as no meetings were called for months at a stretch. “In fact, various Labour MPs had appealed more than once for this committee to meet, yet this never happened,” Falzon said.

Referring once more to the current political hot potato being tossed back and forth, Falzon said that the 2,800 figure that refers to those fresh voters who will not able to vote in the upcoming Divorce referendum only represents those fresh voters up till March 2011.

He said this figure does not include those who acquire the right to vote between then and 28 May, the day of the referendum.

Falzon also said that Fenech Adami’s “assertion” that the number of youth who did not vote in the 2008 general election was bigger than this is “completely wrong.”

“Aside from the purely legal aspect, dignity and political decency demand that when there agreement within the electoral commission that is even sealed with a formal decision so that the situation is ‘elevated’ the PN’s representatives should have never changed their original position,” Falzon said.

“But Lawrence Gonzi’s representatives decided to withdraw from the agreement so that these voters are denied the right to exercise their right to vote,” Falzon said.