The MCAST students’ council (KSM)’s decision to declare that it is in favour of spring hunting – and its claim that a majority of MCAST students share its view – has taken many by surprise, including, apparently, members of the council itself.

The KSM itself notes that its consultation included the use of an online poll, but the poll was open to anyone who found it online, and the voting patterns further emphasise the unscientific nature of the exercise.

It is the second student body to declare a public stance on the upcoming referendum on spring hunting, following the University Students’ Council (KSU).

The KSU has backed a no vote in the referendum, stating that spring hunting was not a fundamental right and threatened sustainability.

But in contrast to the KSM, the KSU’s position reflected the positions of the university’s student organisations, and issued after the hosting of an open forum in which all students could voice their opinion.

The KSM’s position, on the other hand, was not even known to some of the council’s members before it was issued.

Poll open to everyone, allowed multiple votes

In its statement, the KSM said that it “carried out a consultation process with many students from different institutes of the college, including through the use of an online poll. The response we received show that the majority of students are in favour of retaining the legal notice through which Malta applies a derogation permitting hunting in spring.”

One can only hope that the KSM did not rely on the online poll too much, as a closer look at its results indicate a number of problems with the way it was carried out.

Curiously, the online poll cited by the KSM shows that a clear majority of respondents – 63% of them – said that they disagreed with retaining the legislation permitting spring hunting.

The poll was launched in 28 February, and in the first few days, there was actually a clear majority of votes in favour of spring hunting. By 5 March, 78% of respondents were in favour of spring hunting.

Voting died down after a few days, and practically no votes were recorded for two weeks before an upsurge of voting took place over the past five days, overturning the poll’s result. It remains unclear whether the KSM took this upswing – most of the votes were actually made on Monday – into consideration.

But another key problem with the poll was that it was not only open to MCAST students. It was set up on a free poll-making website, and anyone – in Malta and beyond, as voting results show – could vote. Adding insult to injury, there was nothing stopping people from voting repeatedly and distort the poll in their favour.

As it happens, the KSU had held a similar poll a few weeks ago, but it was hosted on the council’s own website and only people with a myKSU login – which are either University or Junior College students – could vote.

The poll was open for little more than a day, and 84% of respondents had expressed their opposition to spring hunting. Of course, restricting the poll to students does not render it scientific, but ultimately, the KSU’s stance reflected the vote of student organisations.

Council’s own members left in the dark

Both the KSU and the KSJC are composed exclusively of members of the Studenti Demokristjani Maltin, a Christian-democrat organisation whose former members include many Nationalist Party politicians.

KSM, on the other hand, is composed of six members of social-democratic organisation Pulse – itself perceived to be close to the Labour Party – and four SDM members.

Neither SDM nor Pulse have actually echoed the pro-spring hunting positions taken by Malta’s main political parties, with SDM explicitly opposing spring hunting. Pulse, on the other hand, said that it did not feel it should impose a position on its members, and simply encouraged all students to vote irrespective of their opinion.

Reacting to the KSM’s position on Facebook, SDM deputy secretary-general Gianluca Sciberras said that not even the organisation’s members on the KSM were consulted before the council issued a position on their behalf.

“It is unacceptable that SDM members are not consulted by the Pulse majority in the council,” Mr Sciberras wrote.

A group of students attending MCAST’s Institute of Applied Science also sent a statement to the press to challenge KSM’s claims that its decision followed a consultation process, describing the council’s statement as “misleading and based on false information.”

KSM “never discussed the holding of any ‘survey’. It is clear that some members of KSM decided to come up with this story without any consultation whatsoever neither with its own members nor with other student organizations,” the students said.

 

They said that many students were expressing disappointment “at the fact that two KSM members put MCAST students in a bad light by expressing opinions which, they claimed, reflected the opinion of MCAST students.”