[WATCH] PN condemns alleged Electoral Commission leak to Labour

PN calls for inquiry into alleged electoral leak • Video by Ray Attard

The Nationalist Party has called on the Electoral Commissioner to conduct an internal inquiry into media allegations that it leaked a planned appeal by the PN to the Labour Party.

The Commission is appealing a decision by the Constitutional Court to award the Nationalist Party with two more seats in Parliament after it had found that the displacement of votes in two districts had ultimately resulted in the election of Labour MPs Justyne Caruana and Joe Debono Grech.

The PN says that the party’s replies to the Commission’s appeal were leaked to the Labour Party.

“The allegations surfaced 24 hours ago but the Electoral Commission has not yet commented on them, a silence which confirms the truth of these allegations,” PN secretary general Chris Said said.

“This is an extremely worrying situation, as the Electoral Commission is supposed to be a fully independent body that works in favour of electoral justice. The constitutional court’s decision was clear in that the PN should be awarded two more seats and no court witness had contradicted the claims that errors were made in the counting of votes.” 

He accused the Electoral Commission of behaving like a Labour band club, pointing to the transfer of some of its members to other government departments.  He also criticised the government for planning to appeal the court’s decision.

“The government is simply using delaying tactics,” Said said. “The Opposition has already spent two years with two less seats than we should have had.”

MP Censu Galea pointed out that a draft law currently being discussed in Parliament will render the Electoral Commission the administrator of the finances of political parties. “How can we rest assured that they won’t similarly leak details on party finances?” Galea said.

Video is unavailable at this time.