Election Playbook: Could Arnold Cassola be Malta’s first independent MEP?

Election news: A few PSAs from the Electoral Commission. Thursday 6 June is polling day at Mater Dei, including SAMOC, Karin Grech, Mount Carmel and Gozo General Hospitals. Because of this, no visitors will be allowed inside these hospitals at any time throughout the day. However, on the advice of Hospital authorities, the Electoral Commission may issue permits for relatives of patients who are very seriously ill and shall have the discretion to decide on the number of relates allowed at any one time. Meanwhile, starting from tomorrow till Thursday, the Commission will distribute uncollected voting documents from the Electoral Office in Naxxar and from the Identity Cards Office in Rabat, Gozo.

3-2-1: Surveys provide snapshots, and oh boy what a snapshot we have this week. According to an election poll by Esprimi and the Times of Malta, independent candidate Arnold Cassola is the third most popular candidate among voters, polling in at almost 5.7%. Assuming 369,750 registered voters, this means Cassola could get 21,000 votes on the first count alone. This is unheard of in an MEP election. In fact, the last time a non-PNPL candidate got anywhere close was Cassola himself in 2004 on the AD ticket. He had received 22,938 votes on the first count. At the time, Malta only used to elect five candidates. Under today’s six-candidate quota, Cassola would have been elected. Ten years later, does he stand a chance?

Life-spotting: Choose life. Choose a job. Choose voting for a candidate that has no individual opinion on the abortion debate in Malta. The Life Network Foundation Malta has been asking prospective MEPs on whether they will vote in favour or against abortion and euthanasia in the European Parliament, and whether they agree on abortion remaining a national competence in Malta’s case.  Several MEPs have answered their questions on an individual basis, except for the PN’s Miriana Calleja Testaferrata de Noto and Lee Bugeja Bartolo. In this case, they simply used a statement from the party’s secretary general explaining the party position. Doctors for Choice Malta quickly picked it up and pointed out the irony of a woman MEP candidate being asked for her views, only for a male party official to answer in her stead.

Fundraising marathons: The Labour and Nationalist parties held fundraising marathons last Sunday, with both parties collecting just over €300,000. This coincided with the day MaltaToday published a report scrutinising party funding. Turns out, we don’t know the origins of over 99% of donations to Malta’s political parties. In Malta, parties only need to declare the source of a donation if it exceeds €7,000. But when looking at the data since the last European election, only three donations exceeding this amount were declared by the Labour Party and Nationalist Party. These donations included an almost €15,000 donation made by Opposition leader Bernard Grech to his own party, and two donations of €10,000 each to the Labour Party by Schembri & Sons Ltd and Pavi Supermarkets. The Nationalist Party has been particularly lax on their financial reporting obligations, having not submitted a donations report since 2020.

What’s happening today?: The Labour Party will be in Mġarr at 5:15pm and in Birgu at 6:30pm. As at time of writing, the Nationalist Party has not published its planned activity for today.