Robin Cook, ex-British foreign minister and now Leader of the House, will be receiving a letter from Harry Vassallo, chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika. It is written on behalf of Arnold Cassola, the party's spokesman on European Union affairs. Dr Cassola also happens to be the elected general secretary of the Federation of European Green parties, an active group in the emerging New Europe.

The Labour Party has filed an application in court questioning Dr Cassola's right to exercise his right to vote at the forthcoming general election. His case will be heard in seven weeks' time, a few days, many are concluding, before the referendum.

Not surprisingly, secretary generals of European political parties are up in arms about what they describe as an "attempt to deprive (him) of his voting right on the grounds that he has to spend quite a time away from Malta in order to fulfil his political mandate... It would be preposterous, absurd and totally unacceptable if the authorities in our countries tried to withdraw on such grounds our fundamental right to vote and to participate in elections".

A voter in Malta has to be resident in Malta for at least six months in the 18 months before the publication of an electoral register. It was on this account that the Labour Party filed its application to strike Dr Cassola off the electoral register. There is a caveat, here. The government was aware of the anomaly, which was why it proposed to parliament that the entrenched constitutional clause be revisited and amended. During the debate the point was made that that there are Maltese people on official work abroad who cannot meet this constitutional requirement.

It was absurd, therefore, to discount them and to strike them off the electoral register for a reason that was democratically fragile, at best; hugely undemocratic, at worst. The framers of the constitution may have had their reason for entrenching such a clause at the time. Given the increased overseas commitments of Malta's citizens, that reason is no longer valid.

To alter the entrenched clause, the parliamentary vote had to be one of two-thirds in favour. With the Labour Party voting against, the amendment was not carried. It has, however, left the onus for this democratic deficit at the feet of the Labour Party. The situation has been recognised abroad.

It led the Greens Group co-president, Dany Cohn-Bendit, to state in very strong terms that: "In this tolerant Europe, there is no place for anti-democratic and intolerant politicians, such as the present leadership of the Malta Labour Party... who resort to squalid and base means to try to get rid of their political adversaries". This is a powerful accusation that will do little for the Labour Party's stock in Europe. We presume that if Labour wishes to promote its European credentials with the Europeans who matter, it has some major fence-mending to do. It is difficult to persuade Europeans that you are European Maltese or a Maltese European if you ignore European fundamentals.

Having said all this, there are many others in Dr Cassola's situation. If Alternattiva wishes to finish its work, it should provide its European friends in the Green parties with more names of people whose right to vote is presently curtailed for the same reason as their spokesman for European affairs.