1745- Latest News update
Times of Malta says Former MP Jason Azzopardi on Tuesday said his time with the Nationalist Party has come to an end after being left “deliberately isolated”.
MaltaToday says The election process was completed on Tuesday with the final stage being the election of 12 women MPs through the new gender corrective mechanism.
Newsbook says A group of asylum seekers, who had been travelling on a dinghy from Libya to Europe, and were eventually rescued by a tanker, El Hiblu 1, were asleep when the Armed Forces of Malta boarded the vessel which had been allegedly hijacked, a witness told the court on Tuesday afternoon.
TVM says a driver escaped serious injury after a roof of an abandoned house collapsed and fell on the van he was driving.
Updated 1230
Cassola describes gender mechanism as a travesty
Independent candidate Arnold Cassola described the gender corrective mechanism undemocratic and said it was only benefiting PL and PN at the expense of third parties. In a statement on Tuesday, soon after the gender mechanism elected 12 new women in Parliament, Cassola said, “this is the biggest travesty of democracy […] Is the will of the electors being respected? Is this right? Is this democracy?” He pointed out how one of ADPD’s candidate, Sandra Gauci got more votes than PL candidate Davina Sammut Hili, however the mechanism benefitted Sammut Hili and elected her to Parliament. He also accused newly-elected PN MP Janice Chetcuti of making a mockery of the concept by relying on the mechanism to be elected, making way for a male colleague.
Twelve women elected to Parliament through gender mechanism
Twelve other candidates from both sides were elected through the gender mechanism. They include the youngest MP, Eve Borg Bonello, and 18-year-old law student. The Times of Malta provides further details here.
Covid-19 Update: 438 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Tuesday, on the same levels of Monday. However, three more persons died, taking the death toll to 667. There are now 8,979 active COVID-19 cases.
Updated 1030 – PN elects five new faces through casual elections
PN MPs Karol Aquilina and Carm Mifsud Bonnici have been re-elected to parliament in casual elections among PN candidates while Jason Azzopardi, a former Minister has failed to make it. The PN will see several new faces in the House, with new candidates Rebekah Cilia, Stanley Zammit, Graham Bencini and Charles Azzopardi, a former Labour mayor in Rabat, and Sliema mayor Graziella Attard Previ all making it through casual elections.
Morning Briefing
Fighting against inflation is a marathon not a sprint – Finance Minister
Protecting Malta’s economy from inflation and rising prices will be a “marathon and not a sprint”, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has warned on Monday. Speaking at the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, Caruana said the government is keeping a watchful eye on international developments resulting from the fallout in Ukraine and pledged that the administration would do whatever it takes to stave off rising inflation. “The reality around us is what it is,” Caruana said. “We can anticipate how we expect the situation to develop because it is already happening overseas. We are following these situations closely, because what is already clear is that in European countries that don’t have the flexibility to manoeuvre and change, the effects of inflation are clearly already penetrating their economies”, the Finance Minister argued. [Times of Malta]
Chamber President calls on Ministers to eliminate clientelism culture
Chamber of Commerce President Marisa Xuereb has told ministers to address and eliminate the culture of clientelism in a speech delivered to Cabinet on Monday. She also rebuked politicians for going after quantity rather then quality in a hard-hitting speech. “In the past, we saw a tendency in political accessibility that was abused,” she said. “These practices create a culture of clientelism which increase inefficiency and create a lack of transparency. The systemic use of efficient technologies in government services is an important part of the solution,” she said. Xuereb went on to list a number of concerns such a problematic public procurement, public entities competing with private enterprises, lack of regulation and needless spending, which she said helped a few businesses but “disrupted others.” [Maltatoday]
Covid-19 Update: 433 new cases of coronavirus were reported today with some 2,758 swab tests being taken on Sunday. This takes the active case tally to 9,134. Two persons have also died overnight.
