Labour CEO refutes voter manipulation claims by leadership contestant Robert Abela

Labour Party CEO Randolph De Battista has hit back at claims made by leadership contestant Robert Abela that the party membership list was manipulated by his rival.

In a Facebook post on Monday morning, De Battista said the party had invested thousands of euros in a new membership database last year that made the forthcoming leadership election possible.

“The system is full of checks and balances to ensure nobody can manipulate it. A system that the administration, the leadership candidates and their representatives know full well how it works because they were given a hands-on explanation, and so they are aware of how serious it is,” De Battista said.

The PL CEO said that a report carried by the Times of Malta this morning, quoting unnamed sources saying that Chris Fearne’s people were seen inputting names into the voter database on New Year’s Eve.

The claims had been doing the rounds over the weekend and Abela filed a complaint with the party’s electoral commission, asking them to investigate the allegations.

De Battista insisted in his Facebook post that the information relayed to the newspaper was incorrect. “It cannot be correct but it worries me because it casts a bad light on the workers at Labour National Headquarters, who, let us say it as it is, whoever is elected leader, will have to work with them,” De Battista ended his comment.

READ ALSO: Labour electoral commission investigates Robert Abela’s complaint on alleged voter list manipulation