Court swiftly throws out ABBA protest on unvaccinated candidates

The courts have turned down a request for a prohibitory injunction against the Electoral Commission, that will be barring access to the Counting Hall to unvaccinated people or anyone without a 48-hour negative rapid test for COVID-19.

The request was made by Christian-conservative party ABBA, whose leader Ivan Grech Mintoff has led various anti-vaxxer marches. ABBA party candidates hail from the River of Love evangelical community, whose leader Gordon John Manché has called the COVID vaccine “the mark of the beast”.

Grech Mintoff protested the directive of the Electoral Commission, taken in agreement with members of the two elected parties to the House of Representatives. “ABBA is not an elected party and has not right to nominate its delegates to the Commission,” the court reminded Grech Mintoff in its decision. “There is no right for the plaintiffs to insist on being consulted in such Commission decisions, and neither has the party being prejudiced by the Commission.”

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In a reaction to the decree, ABBA said it would not appeal the decision and claimed that it had “not lost the war” because candidates can enter the counting hall with a negative rapid test.

Grech Mintoff, whose party is polling well below the 1% mark in MaltaToday-Polar surveys, said he would not be submitting himself to this “abusive rule” in solidarity with students who wear mandatory face-masks in schools.

“Both major parties break these rules during their political activities and COVID cases are increasing again, and neither the Public Health Superintendence nor the Electoral Commission has made any restrictions on them. ABBA in government would not tolerate this kind of abuse and apartheid.”