The controversy that arose over the past week and a half persisted until the end as chaos ensued during KE Elections tonight with the question of whether the 9 proxies were going to be validated still a heated issue.
The Third Eye got in touch with Edward Degabriele, a student representative who was one of those 9 proxies that got denied, who gave us a rundown of what happened during the elections and how the decision was reached to deny the 9 student reps their vote.
This is what Degabriele had to say:
“During the meeting when there was the discussion I wavered my right to the data protection act so the CCTV footage will be able to be viewed of me putting in proxy forms including my own on the night, Friday 12th of April at about 8pm.
He [Jean Claude Scicluna] refused to view the footage and therefore continued his argument and proceeded to the election without validating my vote. The voting continued. Once the votes were given but the ballots had not yet been opened, the discussion was raised again about the validity of my vote.
I tried to exercise my right to table a motion as per KE Standing Orders (Section 6). The motion I was trying to table was for the commission as a whole to vote on whether or not Scicluna should view the CCTV footage.”
“He didn’t allow this either but upon further pressure by myself, he said that he would seek legal advice on whether or not to view the footage. He left the room and came back in a few minutes and proceeded without viewing the footage. The votes were counted and Yacopo won.“
Degabriele concluded looking back on the how everything went down:
“I am extremely disappointed that my vote was not validated and this meeting was led by Scicluna without him allowing for adequate discussion and with him refusing to take any advice from the members present and from the board of discipline.
Regardless I wish Yacopo the best of luck for his upcoming term.”