Malta’s voters reject Labour Govt

Press, 13 May 1987, Page 10

Malta’s voters reject Labour Govt

By

JOE SCICLUNA

of Reuters NZPA Valletta Malta’s Nationalist Party has won a bitterly contested election by a tiny margin, ending 16 years of socialist Labour Party rule.

Election officials broadcasting from the ballot hall said early yesterday

that the Nationalists had won the absolute majority required with 50.57 per cent of the vote. At the Nationalist headquarters, the nerve centre of a slick campaign, Austrian waltz music pounded out and people cheered, clapped and sang. Labour areas such as the dockyards and the campaign flashpoint town

of Zejtun were all but deserted. Residents had taken down the party’s red banners and any posters that could be removed. Speaking to reporters after a long and bitterly divisive election campaign, the victorious Nationalist Party leader, Mr Eddie Fenech Adami, said: “We must feel again

as one people.” Malta would see a “policy of dialogue,” the freeing of the private sector, a pro-Europe policy, friendly ties with nearby Libya and at the same time a rapprochement with the United States, Mr Fenech Adami said.

A blue Nationalist Party poster was fixed trium-

phantly to the red-painted front door of the seat of Government, the baroque Auberge de Castile built by the Crusader Knights of St John on the ramparts of Valletta. "After 16 years, we need a change,” said an Army officer looking at the poster unconcerned. One person was killed and 50 injured in political violence since November. However, the lack of more trouble was attributed to close co-opera-tion between the two party leaderships.

« A main cause of tension in the past five years of Maltese politics was that the Nationalists won 51 per cent of the vote in the 1981 Election but were deprived of victory when Labour won more seats. The exact number of seats each side has won this year will not officially be known for a few days but under a system introduced since 1981, the Nationalists may co-opt new members to give them a majority if they have a shortfall in the 65seat legislature. The Electoral Commission said the Nationalist Party won 119,721 votes and the Malta Labour Party had 114,937.

Mr Fenech Adami said that he was sure he could "co-operate very closely” with the outgoing Prime

Minister and Labour leader, Mr Carmelo- Mifsud Bonnici.

“I expect the Labour Party to behave as a loyal Opposition,” he said. The leaders, both aged 53, are lawyers and Mr Fenech Adami pointed out that they had known each other well at university. The outgoing Tourism Minister, Mr Joe Grima, however, referred to the problems of the past and told Reuters: “The leader of the Opposition led a campaign of five years of divisions and denigration of the country and must bear the responsibility.”

Labour controls most union workers and would have the power to paralyse the country’s economy.

The other parties competing in the election did not win more than a few score votes and almost all their candidates lost their deposits.

The Moscow-backed Communist Party, which had entered 12 candidates, campaigned for the first time in an effort to assess its support, but won only 121 votes. An Independent candidate; Mr Spiridione Sant, aged 59, a pensioner from the British navy, achieved something of a record. He received just one v °te£ s