Close win for hunters in referendum

● PN gains ground in local council elections ● PM closes hunting season early as kestrel crash lands in school yard

April was dominated by two major issues, the spring hunting referendum and the local council elections.

The build-up to the spring hunting referendum and local council elections dominated much of the debate in the previous month, leading up to the actual referendum held on 11 April.

The ‘Yes’ to spring hunting camp ultimately won the referendum by the narrowest of margins – 2,200 votes.

Both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil openly declared that they would vote in favour of retaining spring hunting, which kept politics out of the debate to a large extent, though there were signs that the Labour Party in particularly was lobbying in favour of retaining the annual spring hunt.

Malta came in for some flak abroad when the spring hunting season opened on 13 April, with calls for tourists to boycott the island.

Prime Minister Muscat closed the hunting season one day early when students at St Edward’s College were left traumatised after a shot Kestrel – a protected bird – crashed bleeding into their school yard during break time.

The move was widely seen as a token gesture to bird conservationists following the referendum, though Dr Muscat had issued a stern warning to hunters on the day the referendum result was announced and warned that this was the hunters’ last chance and that “flagrant abuse” would not be tolerated.

Both the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party were left celebrating the results of the local council elections, but the latter had a greater reason to celebrate.

While Labour Party, once more, obtained a majority of the vote in the local council elections, it was the Nationalist Party which saw its share of the vote increase when compared to 2012, the last time local council elections were held.

Back then, excluding the special election that had been held in Sliema, Labour had obtained 57.3% of the vote, and the PN had obtained just 40.7% – a gap of 16.7 percentage points. But this time round, Labour’s share of the vote fell to just under 54%, while the PN’s own share increased to 43.9%, narrowing the gap down to just over 10 percentage points.

Labour still managed to win control of Floriana and Munxar local councils. Both the PN and Labour actually saw their share of the vote decrease in Floriana, with the independent candidates’ share increasing from 13.8% to 18.9%. But this time round, the independent vote was split between two candidates, and neither of them – including former mayor Nigel Holland – managed to get elected. Labour’s victory in Munxar, on the other hand, is in line with the results seen in the rest of Gozo.

The island bucked the trend: Labour registered gains in six of the eight Gozitan localities in which elections were held.

The Labour Party was also close to gaining control in Nadur, but the PN managed to retain control of the locality with just 36 votes at the last count. However, the PN ended up gaining control of a far bigger locality – St Paul’s Bay.

Both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil openly declared that they would vote in favour of retaining spring hunting