Labour MP and potential leadership contender Anglu Farrugia alleged that an organised criminal racket was involved in the buying of votes of Labour supporters.
“The system works like this,” he said in an exclusive interview with MaltaToday. “One would need one or two million Euros to buy votes. This money is divided among a number of agents. Each agent engages the services of runners – the foot soldiers who actually buy the votes. The runners visit bars frequented by drug addicts and people who are more interested in having some cash than in voting…”
Coming in the wake of an election won by 1,500 votes, Farrugia’s allegations are potentially explosive. But if Farrugia’s revelations fall flat, Farrugia’s credibility as a responsible politician will be on thin ice.
Farrugia refrains from blaming the PN for these alleged irregularities, but insists that all cases mentioned in a three-page report he presented to the police commissioner last week involved potential Labour voters who were paid to vote for the Nationalist Party.
He even claims to be in possession of a video as evidence of the irregularities. “Yes I have a video… I have a video showing someone voting for the PN.”
Farrugia refuses to reveal more details on this video saying that it is up to the police to investigate. He even claims to have evidence that people were even given the keys for a housing unit on the same day of the election.
In the interview, the firebrand Labour MP who is aspiring for either the post of leader or deputy leader also announced his opposition to any pairing agreement with the Nationalist Party in a parliament where the government has a wafer thin one-seat majority.
“If I become leader, the Nationalist Party will have a major problem. I will make their life difficult… Personally I would never agree to a pairing agreement with the Nationalists. Back in 1996 the Nationalists made our life hell, that is what we should do now.”