Muscat asserts that neither him nor his family hold secret bank account

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday insisted that neither he, nor any member of his family has a secret account or company abroad.

Dr Muscat, who was speaking at the opening of the PL Annual General Conference, was reacting to recent reports by blogger and journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who claims to know who the owner of the third Panamanian company – Egrant – is.

“I admit that I made a mistake when I let people make up claims about me and I failed to quash those rumours. I will not repeat that mistake. There are now rumours that my wife or some relatives of mine are the owners of that company. I will make it clear: I, my wife, my children and my family do not have any company, account or anything else that is not declared or that is not in this country,” he said.

The Prime Minister, while referring to the speculation surrounding the possibility of a general election, appealed for calm and serenity.

“This should be a clash of political ideas and nothing else. There has to be a line of decency that we, as a party, will not cross.”

Dr Muscat expressed his disappointment by the use of photographs of his wife and children by one of the PN’s organs in order to convey a political message.

While he conceded that his wife was in the public sphere, he insisted that his children were not.

“I appeal to the Opposition leader; let’s keep it decent,” he said.

The PM said the PL would always do things with decency. “I will never let people I have control of to attack the Opposition leader’s family.”

He closed by telling the crowd that the upcoming electoral campaign by the Labour Party would not need to resort to petty personal attacks since the strength of their ideas would not require them to do so.

Labour Party finally registers with Electoral Commission

At the Annual General Conference, PL President Daniel Micallef also announced that the Labour Party has amended its statute in order to be in line with the party financing law.

The amendments, which were unanimously approved, will finally enable the PL to register as a political party with the Electoral Commission.

The PL formally submitted its registration with the Electoral Commission last June.

However, a month ago the Electoral Commission released a statement which said that only the Nationalist Party, Alternattiva Demokratika, the Moviment Patrijotti Maltin, and the Democratic Party were the registered political parties.

This delay has meant the PL is the only party yet to submit its list of financial donations it received in 2016.

Dr Micallef went on to say that the Electoral Commission had never rejected the Labour Party’s application, but rather informed the party that it was required to amend the statute in order to be registered.

The Nationalist Party, Dr Micallef said, “dragged its feet for 25 years” until the legislation was introduced by the current administration.

After it was introduced, he said, the PN was caught breaking the law through “secret invoices”; a reference to the recent scandal involving commercial invoices between the Nationalist Party and Silvio Debono of db Group, which are alleged to be an attempt to circumvent party financing regulation.

It has also been alleged by db Group that these invoices were used to pay PN Secretary General Rosette Thake and CEO Brian St John.