Minister says psychiatrists certified dementia patients fit to vote / Malta News Briefing – Wednesday 23 March 2022

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Minister says Psychiatrists certified dementia patients fit to vote: Psychiatrists and Electoral Commission officials have assessed dementia patients on their capability to vote in recent weeks, Active Ageing Minister Michael Farrugia said this morning. The Minister was reacting to reports by relatives that residents with dementia at St Vincent de Paul Residence were taken to vote early on Saturday without their families being informed. “The vote belongs to the person and neither their relatives nor staff members can stop them from voting once they are certified as being fit,” he added. (Times of Malta)

PN costs its electoral manifesto at €6bn: The Nationalist Party has published the ‘costings’ of its electoral programme, with a spend of just under €6 billion. The PN has projected it will cover the cost of its 550+ measures through economic growth, which would earn the country €42.6 billion over eight years, whilst creating 32,500 new high-end jobs with an average salary of €43,000. “This is the first time a political party in Malta is not just saying how it will spend taxpayer money but is also providing detailed projections of how it intends to grow the economy,” the PN said in a statement. The party said that by 2030, the existing sectors are projected to have added another 18,160 jobs and contributed an additional €18 billion to the GDP. (Maltatoday)

Covid-19 Update: Covid-19 cases continued to increase, with 375 new reports on Wednesday, while 127 recovered. Active cases have reached 2969. During the last 24 hours, two elderly men passed away.

Morning Briefing

BOV disagrees with right to business account proposal

Bank of Valletta CEO Rick Hunkin expressed disagreement with a Labour proposal that every business should have a right to a bank account.“It would be wrong to change a bank’s risk appetite unnecessarily,” Hunkin said. PM Robert Abela has promised to introduce measures, including the right to a bank account, to make it easier for businesses to do banking in Malta. The Labour leader said that it is no use having a government try to develop new economic niches if private investors are unable to do basic banking, and blamed banks for often making life difficult for businesses on the island. [Times of Malta]

PM says a vote for the PN will take Malta to the politics of the past
Prime Minister Robert Abela said that every lost vote by the Labour Party was not just a vote for PN but a vote that took Malta to the politics of the past.
“Every lost vote is a vote that takes us back to the past. Let’s send a clear message that this country is doing away with the politics of the past and want to move forward,” Robert Abela said. Speaking in Paola, the PM continued appealing to all voters to show up early to vote on 26 March and ignore the surveys that gave a clear advantage to the Labour Party.

No new proposals by Labour for Gozo – Grech
Prime Minister Robert Abela’s proposals for the PL’s electoral campaign are either copied from the PN’s electoral programme, or recycled from past PL
manifestos, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said. He said that this is especially the case for the PL’s proposals for Gozo. Addressing a political rally in Victoria, Gozo, Grech said that Abela is recycling the proposal for a new court building in Gozo, which is currently in an unsatisfactory state. He said that the PL had promised a new court building in the past, however the state of the court in Gozo has stayed the same for 10 years. [The Malta Independent]

Covid-19 Update: 333 new cases were reported on Tuesday, while 149 persons recovered. Active cases stand at 2723.