AD calls for 'fair' electoral process

AD spokesperson on EU and International Affairs Arnold Cassola said: "With regards to Maltese expatriates, AD favours an amendment in the electoral law, whereby Maltese living abroad can register at their nearest Maltese Embassy or Consulate and vote there on Election Day."

Cassola pointed out that the Prime Minister has all the necessary Constitutional powers to reconvene Parliament in order to make these amendments to the electoral law before the 9 March election.

As for the voters in hospitals and old people's homes, Cassola said: "it is scandalous that the Directors of these hospitals and homes are being obliged to give a daily list of patients and inmates to the political parties until the day of the election. This is a clear breach of sick and old people's privacy."

All that is needed is a final list around three or four days before election day so that the electoral commission can organise the voting in the respective hospitals and homes, Cassola said.

The Green Party deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said that the large sums of money being spent in the current electoral campaign once more raise the question as to who is financing the large political parties.

"From the little expense incurred by AD we can understand that both the PN and the PL are spending millions of euros which are certainly not derived from the marathon collection sprees organised on the political TV stations last December," he said.

Cacopardo added that in this context it is easily understood why the PN-led government was in no hurry to legislate on the regulation of financing of politics, both of the individual parties and the candidates.

He noted that simultaneously Parliament during the current legislature kept voting an annual sum to the parliamentary political parties.

Stressing that neither the PN in government nor the Opposition took any particular interest in the matter, Cacopardo said "Alternattiva Demokratika is committed in favour of legislation which would make it compulsory to declare donations in excess of €5,000 annually as well as to prohibit donations from persons or companies in excess of €40,000 annually."

Cacopardo also spoke on AD's access to TV broadcasting and stated that the Greens are not satisfied with the time allotted to the party.

"The matter has been dealt with in meetings between AD and the Broadcasting Authority. We are insisting that AD should have more airtime than the few minutes currently allowed on current affairs TV programmes on PBS," Cacopardo said.

He also insisted that political television stations adhere to the Broadcasting Authority Directive issued in February 2012 relative to the electoral campaign.

"During the first week of the electoral campaign both NET and ONE have failed to stick to the Directive and as a result AD yesterday requested a remedy from the Broadcasting Authority," the AD deputy chairperson said.