Letters | Sunday, 17 May 2009

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

Jones Party is alive

But it will not appear in the ballot paper. Instead K.U.L EWROPA will be seen in the box to represent Cecil Herbert Jones. This was the decision taken by the Electoral Commission. The electorate of Gozo will remember the Jones Party well, most especially the Gozo Farmers’ Cooperative, still cooperative today, created by my father Henry Jones on 30th June 1946, twelve years before I was even born.
I registered K.U.L. EWROPA initially and then asked for an amendment to replace it with Jones Party. An unfortunate hitch took place and my submission was deemed late by the electoral commission, albeit made well ahead of the printing of the ballot papers. I am slightly disappointed by the militant attitude adopted by the Commission and question their better judgment in other aspects of the election. I wonder how it is that the voting system reflects the need Malta has of producing a team of five MEPs in the European Parliament when the nature of the present system defeats this very purpose.
It is in my opinion short-sighted and not conducive to the one team spirit Malta should have.
The present system is hierarchic by way of its numbered voting. This means that essentially every voter has a choice of only one preferred MEP. I believe this is discordant in its very purpose to produce the team effect on Malta’s five seats from the very core of the voter’s intention, an intention after all imposed upon by the electoral commission through their present system. The electorate shall, on the 6th June go to the ballots to supposedly select such a team, but that will not be the case, at least not in spirit.
The system should be modified to reflect a better focused intention of the voter. The voter should be able to select his/her preferred five MEPs by way of placing five ‘X’ marks only, doing away with numbers entirely. In this way the voter’s intentions are expressed in their correct perspective, a perspective after all that Malta should have in the EU Parliament. The present system of voting is complicated in its view to achieving this and is therefore a failure. I believe success is on the other hand simple, and the voting system in this case should be simplified and more transparent. The electorate should be asked to vote to select Malta’s team, and not five separate individuals, as the present system produces.
Another short-sight is levelled at the Broadcasting Authority. Incumbent candidates, mostly independents, such as I are sectioned off to our own few and dismal chances of making our electoral biddings. We are made to sit at the back of programmes such as Xarabank and if we’re lucky we get to speak only at the end of the programme. Other election related programMEs also avail minimal time to us. May I remind everybody wherever you are, that the European Parliament consists of over 700 seats and Malta’s five seats are seen as incumbent. The Broadcasting Authority should be aware of this and thus create a system that counters this trend, if they know better, instead of promoting it, as they are doing. Malta wake up!

Cecil Herbert Jones
MEP candidate KUL Ewropa

Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below.
Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.

All the interviews from Reporter on MaltaToday's YouTube channel.

EDITORIAL


The Mater Dei haemorrhage

INTERVIEW