MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar election October 11, under new constitution

Chief Minister Peter Caruana

Gibraltar will be calling a General Election Thursday October 11. Governor Sir Robert Fulton, advised by Chief Minister Peter Caruana issued a Proclamation dissolving Parliament and convening the General Election.

Under the new Gibraltar Constitution the seats at this election have risen from 15 to 17, giving people 10 out of 17 candidates to vote for and thus form a government. But the formula will put pressure on party leaders and campaigners to get the electorate to keep their 10 'x's to one party. Chief Minister Caruana asked if this might be a last term for him or that perhaps, as in some places, there should be a time limit he said, "It is up to the people of Gibraltar to choose the best candidate for the job and I know of no Gibraltarian that believes that Gibraltar and its future should be deprived of the best man for the job simply to give someone who is not the best man for the job a clear run to No 6 Convent Place." Does this mean he wants to carry on after the next term? "I have always said that in a democracy, just as you seek public support for your successes so you have got to accept when the public say that there is somebody better than you". "I have never been game for stepping down before the people of Gibraltar get the opportunity to sack me. I am never going to walk away from this job for reasons to do with my own personal electoral prospects." Mr Caruana denied that the completion of major projects – the leisure centre, car parks, some of which he toured suddenly last week– were issues related to the election. "The people of Gibraltar are not that fickle. You cannot pull the wool over people's eyes simply by unveiling these three days before an election. The people of Gibraltar make their decision about how they are going to vote in General Elections over a period of time. They assess the performance of the Government. They know the projects that are in the pipeline, they know if the Government's vision and performance has satisfied them to entrust the governance for the next four years to the party in government or whether it hasn't." Caruana listed his party GSD, record: "Our unprecedented success on the constitutional front, on the Spanish front, the solution of many seemingly insoluble problems, increased normalization, Gibraltar with its own voice in a trilateral forum." This, he said, was 11.5 years of "unprecedented prosperity". The GSD leader said he felt confident that overall people would feel the GSD record was good. People would recognize the GSD had a vision and by and large had implemented it, he said. On the number of seats Mr Caruana said that in the Constitutional talks all had agreed that there would be a government of 10 and an opposition of seven. "That is what people accepted. We should have a parliament which is better balanced between the size of government and the size of opposition, and not always have government limited to a majority of one. This is very strained democracy in terms of Government's room for maneuver, in terms of personnel change and things of that sort." He said the idea of a 9-8 balance would be a distortion of what had been intended. The arrangement could lead to a front bench and backbench scenario. Returning Officer Melvyn Farrell confirmed that nomination papers for candidates who will stand in the General Election must be delivered to Parliament House no later than 12 noon Thursday 20th of September. There are 20,298 names on the latest Register of Electors, although that won't be the official number of people eligible to vote, as some of the youngsters on the list will not yet have turned 18 by the day of the Election.