Electoral Commission 'forced to vet' Lovin Malta’s application

As Malta woke up to April Fool’s Day on Saturday, internet users braced themselves for a day of pranks by media houses including online news sites… many of which were instantly called out.

Amongst them was Lovin Malta, whose prank was meant to fool its followers into believing that it was going to become a political party. The social news site went to great lengths in doing so, drafting an electoral manifesto with 52 proposals and topping it all off with a music video – in a style reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s Our Flight Song – to reveal that it was, in actual fact, a joke.

It however turns out that Lovin Malta took the prank a step further and submitted an application to the Electoral Commission, with the intent to register itself as a political party.

Contrary to the rest of the country, the Electoral Commission will not be dismissing the application as a prank but will follow through the normal procedure.

The Electoral Commission on Monday issued a statement to confirm that it had received the application, but insisted that the application had not yet been approved.

 “The Commission shall be examining the documentation it has received to verify their conformity with the legal provisions of the Financing of Political Parties Act (Cap. 544) before it reaches a decision,” the Electoral Commission said in an official statement.

“This is the procedure used to vet every application we receive.”

In comments to the Times of Malta, Lovin Malta’s CEO Christian Peregin insisted the stunt was “completely intended as a prank”.

“It’s only as much a joke as people want it to be,” Peregin told Times of Malta. “We won’t be contesting elections, but I think we can bring about interesting discussions and change in different ways. People like the proposals, so why not make sure they’re taken seriously by politicians?”