Independent candidates can have logos on ballot sheets

Independent MEP candidates will be allowed to have their logos on next month’s electoral ballot, the Electoral Commission has told Arnold Cassola.The decision was made following a complaint filed by Prof. Cassola, who is running as an independent MEP candidate in next month's elections.

Prof. Cassola had contested the Electoral Commission’s reasoning that logos could only be displayed alongside the names of candidates belonging to political parties.

“Hats off to the Electoral Commission,” Prof. Cassola said. “Despite being all nominated by the PL and the PN, the members of the Commission – when confronted by my strong arguments – decided to eliminate the disadvantage independent candidates faced".Article 49 (6) of the General Elections Act allows candidates to display their badge before their name on ballot sheets “indicating the political party, if any, to which the candidate belongs”.

Opinion: What I stand for - Arnold CassolaProf. Cassola had argued that nothing in that article suggested that independent candidates were precluded from displaying a logo on ballot sheets. “You are saying, by way of example, that ‘doctors deserve a pension; therefore anyone who is not a doctor...