From Floriana l-Ewwel to ABBA, Malta has 12 registered political parties

The ballot sheet in the next general election could be a crowded one if all the 12 political parties registered with the Electoral Commission contest.

A list of registered parties obtained from the commission provides a varied choice that also includes independent parties for Floriana and Għarb.

Floriana l-Ewwel and L-Għarb l-Ewwel represent the platforms on which independent candidates contested the last local elections.

Whether they will also contest the general election remains to be seen but the list of registered parties also includes Brain Not Ego, a single-candidate party that contested the 2019 European Parliament election.

The rest of the list includes familiar names and less known parties that were born recently.

Apart from the Labour Party and its arch nemesis, the Nationalist Party, the list includes ADPD, which has contested every general election since 1992.

There are then the fringe parties on the conservative and far-right of the political spectrum.

Moviment Patrijotti Maltin (MPM) remains a registered party despite disappearing from the public space with some of its members joining newly set up formations.

Norman Lowell’s Imperium Europa is also registered and is the only party to have its accounts and donation forms updated to 2019. It remains to be seen whether Imperium will contest the next general election.

The newest political parties on the right of the spectrum are the Popular Party, led by Paul Salomone, a former member of the defunct Azzjoni Nazzjonali, and ABBA, led by Ivan Grech Mintoff, which espouses Christian values.

Ironically, Grech Mintoff’s former party, Alleanza Bidla, is still a registered entity despite no recent activity.

The list also includes the leftist Volt Malta, which is an offshoot of a pan-European party that will contest the next election.

The last general election was contested by the PL, PN, AD (before its merger with the Democratic Party), MPM, Alleanza Bidla and several independent candidates.

Lack of accounts

Political parties are obliged at law to submit yearly audited accounts and donation reports but the latest available on the commission’s website are those for Imperium Europa for 2019.

When asked the reason for this omission, the commission said that only the audited accounts approved by it become available for review on the website.

“Outstanding reports have not yet been posted on the said website because they are still being reviewed by the Electoral Commission’s professional auditors, in line with the Financing of Political Parties Act,” Chief Electoral Commissioner Joseph Camilleri said.

He noted that whenever the auditors highlight any deficiencies in reports presented by political parties, the respective parties are notified and asked to clarify or answer to the observations.

“When replies are received from the political parties, this feedback is referred back to the auditors for further review. As soon as the reports are finally cleared by the Electoral Commission, they are published on the commission’s website,” Camilleri said.

However, he noted that a number of reports were presented to the Electoral Commission later than usual since it granted an extension of the deadline for the submission of the documents in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulties encountered by the parties to convene the relative party organs where accounts are approved.

The last available set of approved accounts and donation reports for the PL and PN hark back to 2018.