When reading The Times one does not know if one should laugh or cry. Malta government seems more and more like a Donald Duck government, a joke, with government officials, sadly including members of the Judicial, being so dishonest that it is difficult to comprehend. The government officials seem so eager to be just bigwigs that they have forgotten who they are put to serve.The judicial system seems to be in a mess.
The Observer just wants to give a few examples from todays The Times.
Once more a new bribery probe is ongoing against Transport Malta officials.
This governmental body seems to be one of the most dishonest not only in Malta but in the whole EU. This time the bribery inquiry concerns three officials so far, but in 2010 another three officials and 230 other people were charged in connection with hundreds of driving licenses granted to people who had not even sat for a test. This proves that The Observer was absolutely right in the article “Traffic in Malta, a risky business” of Feb 14, although some of the licenses have been seized by the police. However, one thing was not correct; the driving licenses are not issued by Disney World or come with the cereal packages from Scotts, but are issued by Transport Malta against a monetary compensation. This way of giving out driving licenses must surely be promoting road safety in Malta.
Malta has a very old fashioned system for ensuring that people can show that they are entitled to vote in the coming council election. Policemen deliver the documents to every single voter in person. This means that the policemen knock doors for several weeks; no wonder that there are more policemen in Malta in relation to the size of the population than in most EU countries. In Sliema the police have failed to deliver documents to 58 % of the voters.
Since Sliema is said to be a PN stronghold one can wonder if this is one more situation in which bribes are occurring. A policeman who delivers documents in Sliema and is a convinced PL supporter can easily neglect to deliver in areas with strong support for PN. The Observer does not state that this is the case but has a time saving suggestion that also will exclude the possibility of bribes; Malta should modernize its system and this is very easily done. Malta has computerized lists of the population which easily can be sorted (if not this has been done already) by place of residence in voting lists. People then just have to show their ID cards when coming to the polls and be ticked off. The present system is just ridiculous.
The Observer just want to stress what is said in the article of Feb 15, “Reflections on the judicial system in Malta” by referring to the following articles in The Times of today. Here.
And do not forget to look into this one!
I was particularly bemused by your comment on the police delivering voting cards. A few weeks back, just as you describe, a policeman knocked and delivered my husband's voting card, for which I signed as he was out of the country for a month. I hadn't been paying attention to the news, and quite thought it was for a national election, hence I wouldn't be entitled to vote, and no card for me. However, this week, a prospective local council candidate turns up on the doorstep and confirms that I am indeed on the electoral register for local elections (I had voted a few years back in fact in those). I said I'd not received my card. He said I was probably not in when the policeman called. The policeman delivered my husband's so surely mine was there too that day with him?! Weird system or perhaps gerrymandering around with voting cards as you say, who knows. But archaic a system it is, that's for sure, and open to abuse as you say.
ReplyDeleteThe Observer and his wife have had roughly the same experience. A policeman knocked at our door in order to deliver voting cards. He had all the cards in a bag in total disarray and could not find The Observer's card. The policeman said that the Observer had to go to the local policestation if he wanted his card since he only had the card for the Observer's wife. After about ten minutes of diskussion he remembered that he had a few cards in his pocket and there it was. Why on earth should he keep voting cards in his pocket?
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