Rampant And Illegal ‘Vote Buying’ Made Election Unfair And Must Be Tackled, PN MPs Warn
As the Nationalist Party continues to lick the wounds it sustained from the general election trashing, one of the main threads that is starting to emerge is the way the government “abused” its power of incumbency.
PN MPs Chris Said and Stephen Spiteri both raised this point during a discussion about the election on NET yesterday, with Said warning that this issue isn’t being spoken about enough.
“On the Thursday and Friday before the vote, a large number of contracts were signed with Gozitan people for them to enter the Community Work Scheme as of 4th April,” the Gozitan MP said.
“JobsPlus’ CEO told us in Parliament that this scheme is intended to help people who have been unemployed for a long time find a job, but none of the people who signed up before the election were unemployed.”
Prime Minister Robert Abela celebrates the PL's election victory
“We must enter into detail and we shouldn’t be scared to speak out. We must call out abuse for what it is, because the people in power shouldn’t get to use their power to ensure they remain in power for several more years.”
Meanwhile, Spiteri warned that people were promised government housing in properties that are still on plan and given unnecessary public sector jobs, to the detriment of Malta’s public coffers and the private sector’s labour market pool.
“I am worried when I see the debt shooting up, an oversupply of government workers and a lack of productivity in the private sector, all for [the PL] to acquire power,” he said. “Everyone has a right to win elections but let’s be fair with the electorate and the electoral system.”
This is giving the Opposition a huge disadvantage on elections and let’s discuss any irregularities from now so that the situation doesn’t repeat itself.”
How big of an impact do you think the abuse of the power of incumbency had on the election results?
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