Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/832512
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 4 JUNE 2017 6 News 1. 'Terinu' - the archetype The year was 1927. Tensions were running high ahead of a piv- otal election contested by, in one corner, Lord Gerald Strickland's Constitutional Party (in a 'com- pact alliance' with Colonel William Savona's Malta Labour Party); and in the other, the Nationalist Party led by Sir Ugo Mifsud. Simmering in the background was mounting hostility between Strick- land and the Catholic Church over the latter's right to permanent rep- resentation in the Senate, as well as the so-called 'language ques- tion': nominally, a choice between English and Italian as language of instruction... but a choice which nonetheless divided Malta's politi- cal allegiance between the colonial authorities of the day, and nearby Italy at a time when Fascism was on the rise. The campaign itself had already been marred by sporadic violence, with police having to intervene during meetings on both sides. On election day itself, the PN cir- culated a leaflet containing the copy of an affidavit signed by Et- tore Bono (aka 'Terinu'): a waiter who declared that he had spotted Strickland in full Masonic regalia at a banquet some 30 years earlier. The affidavit was not enough to overturn the election result - the Compact Alliance won the elec- tion, though its rule would be short-lived - but it nonetheless had an enormous impact, both on popular perceptions of Strickland himself, as well as on the dynamics of practically all future elections. The word 'Terinata' has since entered the national lexicon to signify last-minute, back-handed attempts to influence voter inten- tions. Needless to add, there have been any number since... 2. Those 8,000 jobs... When Alfred Sant attributed his 2008 defeat to the 'power of in- cumbency', it was hardly the first time that a sitting government stood accused of using that power to bounce back from an otherwise certain defeat. In an earlier twist that would form a blueprint for future elec- tions, former prime minister Kar- menu Mifsud Bonnici was accused of liberally dishing out 8,000 jobs on the eve of the 1987 election: at a time when unemployment stood at a record 13%, and the MLP was widely expected to lose. Mifsud Bonnici would (years lat- er) defend this initiative by argu- ing that the recruiting had taken place between 1985 and 1987, fol- lowing a decision in 1981 to freeze public sector employment until 1984. Be that as it may, the damage was done, and Opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami was forced to write to the 8,000 recruits to assure them that their newly ac- quired job would be secure even after a change in government. Government duly changed in May 1987; and sure enough the same 8,000 jobs would time and again be cited as the official reason for Malta's growing deficit all the way until the 2003 election. 3. Foetus frenzy If association with Freemasonry was the big no-no of the 1920s, an- ything less than a public condem- nation of abortion in all its forms became almost a sine qua non of electoral success in the last three or four elections. Or at least, that was the plan as painstakingly engineered by for- mer justice minister Tonio Borg, who left no stone unturned to transform an issue on which there is broad political consensus into a major plank of the PN's electoral strategy. For a change, the battlefield proved to be Malta's first ever Eu- ropean election in 2005, in which AD candidate Arnold Cassola was perceived (rightly, as it happened) to pose a major threat to the PN's chances. Borg tried to counter this threat by insisting that Cassola – formerly secretary-general of the pro-choice European Greens – had rendered his position untenable by mere as- sociation with a European Party that failed to share his own ultra- religious pro-life zeal. As tactics go, this one clearly backfired: Cassola deflected the ac- cusation by reminding Borg that it was the PN's political ally and main inspiration (the Democrazia Cris- tiana) that had legalised abortion in nearby Italy. He would go on to attract over 28,000 votes - not enough to get elected, but more than enough to thwart the PN's ambitions for a majority in the Eu- ropean Parliament. Surprisingly, the PN (and Borg in particular) would aggressively cling to the failed abortion tactic in future: teaming up with radical NGO Gift of Life to propose a Con- Five game-changers that tried to change the course of Maltese elections Elections are often won or lost due to manoeuvres and game-changing gimmicks at the eleventh hour. RAPHAEL VASSALLO looks back on a few of the major events which changed (or tried to change) the course of past elections Then Labour leader Alfred Sant (right) at TVM where he was faced by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (seated centre, front row)