Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1440009
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 JANUARY 2022 OPINION ering (and Perspex-banging) fracas would have to be… let's say, 'restrained'. And on pa- per, it shouldn't be too diffi- cult, either. It is, after all, an indoor location; the process itself can be filmed (or digital- ly-streamed) live; and we can certainly rearrange the seating configuration, to ensure that the counters themselves are properly distanced, etc. It is, in a nutshell, all perfectly 'doable'. Nonetheless, we are still left with two (rather important) ingredients of any General Election, that simply cannot be made to fit into any scenar- io involving COVID-19, Omi- cron… or any other nationwide viral epidemic, for that matter. The less critical one concerns the celebrations that will invar- iably follow: and in a situation where one party (you'll never guess which) looks poised to win by a huge majority… un- der normal circumstances, we would be looking at literally tens of thousands of people, gathering uncontrollably in huge numbers, all over the en- tire country. To the best of my knowledge, there is simply no way – tech- nological, or otherwise - to prevent that from occurring: regardless how high the rate of transmission may be, at the time. (Let's face it: you can't even impose martial law… be- cause the AFM would be out- numbered almost literally 300 to 1). The most you can do is sim- ply hope that fear of contagion would be enough of a deter- rent, in and of itself. But if past experience is anything to go by – a certain Santa Venera festa here springs to mind – it's not exactly likely, is it? But it's the second ingredi- ent that worries me a whole lot more. Voting. Has anyone even paused to consider how Elec- tion Day itself would pan out, in a situation where (like to- day) over a thousand new cases are reported on a daily basis? Even taking into account a possibly lower turnout than usual… the vast majority, of some 360,000 registered vot- ers, will still have to be phys- ically present in (or outside) the same polling stations: all coming and going at different times, yes… but all queueing (and converging) in the same space, on the same day, for much, MUCH longer than is normally enough to transmit the disease… Leaving aside that the post-electoral spike, under those circumstances, would make even last year's Christ- mas nightmare look like a mi- croscopic little blip… there are no technological solutions to this one, either. Not because such solutions do not actually exist: indeed, there are plenty. We could, for instance, very easily have had the foresight to change our electoral system - to allow for online voting, for instance – but the fact remains that: a) we never did; and b) we proba- bly never will, either... because that would necessitate a two- thirds majority in Parliament, and… … well, we'd have a much bet- ter chance of actually solving the entire Omicron crisis our- selves – right now, as we speak - than of ever reaching that kind of agreement in practice (still less, by mid-April at the very latest). So… what more can I say, folks? As far as I can see, there is every likelihood that – after all the hype and controver- sy of 2021 - we might end up not even having an election in 2022… AT ALL. And on that hugely optimistic note: Happy New Year, folks! Omicron does little to deter the erection of billboards all over the island (or stuffing our mailboxes with junk-mail, etc.). And there are also tried- and-tested ways of staging live televised debates, without breaking social distancing regulations