OWNI.eu

Today, after weeks of a vociferous electoral campaign, the Mediterranean country of Malta, now anxiously quiet, holds its breath. Today is the day the inhabitants of the 300km2 archipelago located south of Sicily have been waiting for for weeks. Today, Malta votes, and the results are certain to affect the country durably.

Indeed, the country is holding a referendum regarding whether or not the Parliament will vote on a bill introducing divorce legislation in a legal system which, unique in the European Union, does not yet offer this solution for spouses experiencing marital breakdown.

So far, couples in Malta can have their marriage cancelled in court through a long, complex and restrictive procedure. They can also obtain a legal separation, but the latter prevents them from ever getting married again. Two solutions whose shortcomings are highlighted by the fact that Maltese courts actually recognize divorces obtained abroad by Maltese nationals or bi-national couples.

The bill in question was introduced to everyone’s suprise earlier this year in a bi-partisan fashion by Evarist Bartolo (Labour, oppostion) and Jeffrey  Pullicino Orlando (Nationalist Party, conservative, in power). By doing so, they really stirred up a hornets’ nest. The members of Parliament, very much aware of the sensivity of the issue in the country, decided to ask their constituents first, against the will of the Prime minister Lawrence Gonzi.

Since then, several organizations, political parties and individuals, including Labour leader Joseph Muscat talking in his personal capacity, called to vote “yes” to the referendum, stating that it was time for Malta to stop being one of the last countries in the world along with the Philippines and the Vatican to ban divorce. “I agree with claims that Maltese families are strong, so why are we afraid? If the family is strong then it can live with divorce, divorce isn’t there for people to be capricious, but for people who really need it,” Muscat said in a interview with Labour-owned One Radio.

Opponents to the divorce legislation, including the ruling Nationalist Party, dread a weakening of the family unit and the loss of a core value of the fabric of Maltese society. They also fear “an Irish future” for Malta, that is a dramatic increase in divorces once and if the legislation passes. And those are just the secular arguments.

In addition, the most powerful ally to the “no” vote is the highly influential Maltese Catholic church. Indeed, while old fishermans’ villages are turned into non-descript concrete apartements for tourists, further away from the water front, the omnious faience religious icons built in the porches of traditional honey-colored limestone houses remind the passers-by that more that 95% of Maltese self-describe as catholic. Religious justifications to vote “no” have been included in homilies during the last Sunday mass before the vote and also, more suprising, in talking points of columnists and politicians. While those messages echo in the deeply catholic Maltese society, the Church also provided the anti-divorce legislation with a financial, organizational and moral help throughout the campaign.

Today, the actual question Maltese citizens have to answer is as follow:

Do you agree with the introduction of the choice of a divorce in the case of a married couple who has be separated or has been living apart for at least four (4) years, and where there is no reasonable hope for reconciliation between the spouses, whilst at the same time ensuring the adequate maintenance is guaranteed and the welfare of the children is safeguarded?

Despites the precautionary phrasing of the question, the campaign has been particularly harsh, its last few days sprinkled with personal attacks, controversies and name calling. Domestic violence, children and even Islam were used, often in specious ways, as arguments during the debate. Friday, eve of the referendum, was supposed to be a day of silence and reflection void of political campaigning. But even this traditional ban was allegedly breached by some media outlets.

Activists from both sides took this war of words on the Internet as well, using all the tools available to them to campaign : websites, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts etc. Sean Schembri, from Stand Up, a youth organization in favor of the divorce legislation explained to Owni.eu, “we have invested a lot of our resources on online campaigns, and it seems it is working due to the number of positive feedback we got in the recent weeks.”

A twist to this online campaign came when the self-proclaimed mullah of “Divorzistan” started to satirise publicly billboards and the rethorics of the anti-divorce movement. Mainly in Maltese, the humor, including one Hitler/Downfall parody, is lost on most of the external observers but he feels he has accomplished something on the national level. “Divorzistan started out as a joke – the incessant need I felt for jest to be poked at the apocalyptic, paranoid and fearful messages from the Movement touting the ‘No’ slogan.” he explained recently online, “it is beyond the shadow of a doubt that I, and all [more than 1,100 persons] those who have clicked the ‘Like’ button upon our page are in favour of Divorce. ”

Tension has been running so high that European political parties and non-political organisations have requested the presence of external observers, fearing meddling from each sides. Consenquently, the European Green Party will send two observers to monitor the counting of the votes on Sunday.

To ensure that the greatest number of citizens vote, the government set up a system to help Maltese citizens abroad to come back in their country and cast their ballot, through the sales of state-subsidized airplane tickets on the national company Air Malta. Indeed, Malta, a country of 408,000 with a history of emigration, does not have enough embassies or consulates to ensure that all its citizens living abroad could vote properly. For instance, a source who directly benefited from this scheme told Owni.eu that his subsidized round-trip London-Malta ticket cost 35 euros.

The operation allowed “1250 persons [who] benefited from the scheme of reduced-price flights to come over to Malta and vote,” a government spokeperson told Owni.eu. These subsidies, adding to the rest of the electoral expenses, made the total cost of the referendum rise to an estimated 4 millions euros.

In total, a little over 304,000 Malteses are eligible voters, while nearly 21,000 citizens did not collect their voting documents, hence banning them from voting. This figure of 21,000 is apparently “the highest in recent political history.“The archipelago may be ready to vote, but the outcome of the referendum remains unforseeable.

All the latest polls are too close to call. The only certainty is that the behaviour of the ever-increasing share of undecided will be crucial: they will truly be the king makers of the referendum. “The outcome is going to hinge on the undecided voters” explains Green Party spokesperson for Justice David Friggieri. A smaller party facing the Maltese bipartite system, The Green Party called officially to vote “yes”. He adds ,”there is this 20 percent of undecided, who knows what they will make up their mind at the last minute.” He continues, “personally, I’m not very hopeful” that the “yes” will win, “but I’m not too pessimistic either if the ‘no’ wins. It will make a lot of people realize what the situation really is. There will be a backlash against the reasons, such as the influence of catholicism, that pushed the Maltese society to vote “no”.

The official results should be known by late Sunday afternoon, a goverment spokesman told Owni.eu.