Marlene Mizzi dreading a dejà vu

Incumbent Labour MEP Marlene tells Sunday newspaper Illum that she is fearing the 'donkey vote' after it had cost her a seat at the European plenary back in 2009.

Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi
Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi

Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi fears a repetition of what happened in the 2009 European elections, when she suffered a disadvantage in the inheritence of votes due to her surname putting her at the end of the list of Labour candidates.

Despite polling 5,000 more votes than John Attard-Montalto, the latter inherited the majority of Claudette Abela Baldacchino’s votes and consequently surpassed both Joseph Cuschieri and Mizzi who were occupying the third and fourth Labour seats.

Mizzi eventually took her place in Brussels only last year in the casual elections replacing Edward Scicluna, becoming the first female Maltese MEP.

“After what happened in 2009, I am concerned, yes,” she admitted in an interview with Sunday newspaper Illum.

“Five years ago I lost my place due to a system where the inheriting of votes clearly favours the candidates at the top of the list, with surnames starting with the initial letters of the alphabet. With ‘Mizzi’ I should be in the second half of the list, so that puts me in disadvantage,” the incumbent MEP said.

She added she doesn’t believe the electorate is aware of the importance of first preference votes, referring to the donkey vote system were one votes to candidates as they appear on the ballot paper, instead of numbering them according to one's preference.

Asked about the recent controversy surrounding her former colleague Cyrus Engerer, Marlene Mizzi said Engerer took the ‘honourable’ way out.

“I think he made the right choice, he took the most honourable decision he could take because he brought the party’s interests before any personal gains.”

In the interview, Mizzi acknowledges that her recent surge in public opinion surveys comes down to being more present in Malta after the end of the EP’s legislature.

“Being an incumbent MEP is a drawback since you still have commitments to honour in the European Parliament. After the legislature came to an end, I had more chance to meet the electorate and point out my work. But with fifteen days more to go, you cannot sit back and relax,” the former Sea Malta chairman said.

Read more in today’s issue of Illum.