Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/349229
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 JULY 2014 3 News Standalone referendum 'shouldn't trouble eager supporters' – Muscat MIRIAM DALLI A standalone referendum on the abolition of spring hunting and the postponement of local council elec- tions should not trouble eager sup- porters, according to Prime Minis- ter Joseph Muscat. The Maltese government is plan- ning to postpone local council elec- tions up until 2019, a move that could mean the abrogative referen- dum to ban spring hunting would be held on its own, and at the risk of a lower turnout. "The abrogative referendum is an independent process and whether it is held with local council elections or not should not be an issue for its supporters," Muscat told MaltaTo- day. "If there is such enthusiasm and desire for a referendum to deter- mine whether hunting should be banned or not, then [supporters] shouldn't be troubled." Critics have described the pro- posal to put off next year's round of local council elections to 2019 – re- vealed in parliament by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil – as a strategy intended to dead-leg an abrogative referendum against spring hunting, by not linking the plebiscite with local elections, which tend to draw high turnouts. A standalone referendum is the hunters' lobby's preferred option, should the referendum be held. Muscat has justified his prefer- ence of holding local elections concurrently with those of the Eu- ropean Parliament on the grounds that it would save the country some €2.5 million per round of elections, increase participation and decrease electoral fatigue. On several occasions the Prime Minister has pronounced himself in favour of "Malta's right to derogate" from the EU's ban on spring hunt- ing. He has however denied that the elections postponement had anything to do with the abrogative referendum. "It has absolutely nothing to do with it," Muscat told MaltaToday when asked whether it was a coin- cidence that the proposers of the abrogative referendum had planned for it to be held next year to coin- cide with the scheduled 2015 local elections. Muscat has been floating the idea of holding the local elections on the same day as the European Parlia- ment elections since May. That was when Labour in government re- peated its overwhelming success at the polls which it registered in the March, 2013 general elections. But in the past days, the govern- ment notified the opposition that it intended presenting a Bill to amend the Local Councils Act. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said the gov- ernment, without consulting any- one, wanted to postpone the local elections. Busuttil's speech in parliament appeared "to surprise" Muscat: "I cannot understand why all this fuss now when I placed the issue on the agenda a day after the May EP elections were held. Moreover, the PN has nothing to be scandalised about… they have postponed local council elections on several occa- sions." The Opposition was not the only one irked by this move: Labour backbenchers Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia took the govern- ment to task for even considering the idea. A more vociferous Godfrey Farrugia said "democracy does not carry a price tag". "It doesn't hold to argue that mov- ing the elections would save money. Democracy doesn't carry a price tag," Farrugia told the Church's ra- dio station RTK. Farrugia said the government should ensure that every possible democratic tool is strengthened, not weakened. Echoing his comments, Marlene Farrugia said local councils are in- dispensable instruments that should be supported. "We shouldn't take an ugly chance and ruin what we have built along the years since the local councils were set up," she said. CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Initial re- ports on the Italian media said that a boat carrying 600 asylum seekers found itself in difficulties and Italian authorities recovered 18 bodies from the boat's lower deck. The Maltese government said the boat was carry- ing around 400. While rescuing the migrants, of whom a number were transferred to Sicily, a man died while on his way to Palermo. Conflicting reports on the number of deaths is varying from 12 up to 20. According to the Italian news- paper La Repubblica, the number of persons who lost their lives at sea has reached 20. The migrants' boat – which according to government sources was taking in water – was at 68 nautical miles off Lampedusa, in Malta's search and rescue region. An AFM offshore patrol vessel, the P61, was conducting an operation for the transfer of the bodies on to it. The government said RCC Malta was coordinating the rescue of a boat with around 400 migrants on board, while they were being transferred onto a merchant vessel. The Italian coast guard was assisting in the op- eration. "On closer inspection of the mi- grant vessel after the migrants were transferred onto the ship, it tran- spired that a number of migrants were found dead in the vessel's hold, possibly due to a stampede," the gov- ernment said. It also said that over the past three days, AFM personnel stationed at the RCC in Luqa as well as those deployed on air and sea assets have been incessantly working with their Italian counterparts to save lives at sea. "Since Thursday, the AFM Opera- tions Centre coordinated four search and rescue cases with a total of 1,062 migrants saved thanks to the coordi- nation between Malta and Italy. Dur- ing this period Italian forces have also rescued an additional 4,000 mi- grants," the government said. At around 2.35pm, the AFM em- barked on its final operation to trans- fer the bodies from the migrants' timber boat to the P61. The boat will be towed and arrival is expected this morning. Prime Minister toys with controversial option to postpone council elections up until 2019, to have standalone referendum on spring hunting that could undermine turnout RCC Malta was coordinating rescue of 400 migrants – government Conflicting reports on death toll vary from 12 to 20