Alfred Sant

Alfred Sant
Prime Minister of Malta
In office 1996–1998
Preceded by	Eddie Fenech Adami
Succeeded by	Eddie Fenech Adami
Constituency	1st and 8th electoral divisions
Personal details
Born	(1948-02-28) February 28, 1948 Pietà, Malta
Political party	Malta Labour Party
Height	172 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Residence(s)	Birkirkara, Malta
Website	www.mlp.org.mt

Alfred Sant (born February 28, 1948) is a Maltese politician, who served as Prime Minister of Malta between 1996 and 1998 and as Leader of the Opposition between 1992 and 1996 and since 1998.

Personal life

He graduated from the University of Malta as Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics in 1967 and as Master of Science in Physics in the following year. He studied public administration at Institut International d'Administration Publique - ENA in Paris and holds a Master of business management from Boston University Graduate School of Management and a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard. He also served for some time in the Maltese Public Service in the Malta mission to the EC.

Dr Sant underwent a medical operation in hospital on Thursday 27 December 2007. A medical bulletin was issued by the medical team after the operation, without revealing the nature of the operation.

Politics

He was appointed Chairman of the Department of Information Malta Labour Party in 1982 and, in 1984, President of the Party. In this post he served until 1988. He was also Chairman of Metalfond and the University Students' Selection Board. In 1987 he was co-opted in Parliament and was elected to the House in the 1992 elections. Soon after that election he was elected Leader of the Labour Party in a ballot in which he came from behind to beat favourite Lino Spiteri in the second round.

22-month government 1996-98

The Malta Labour Party (MLP) won the October 1996 elections under Sant who successfully campaigned for the removal of the Value Added Tax system that had been introduced in 1995. But rows with former Labour Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, forced Sant to call early elections within less than two years into the term, in September 1998, which the Malta Labour Party lost.

2003 Referendum and election

Dr Alfred Sant campaigned heavily against Malta's European Union membership. During the run-up to the March 2003 referendum, Sant was also critical of what he called a "sham referendum" insisting that a general election would be enough to settle the EU membership issue. He partially boycotted the referendum by calling on Labour supporters to either vote No, or else abstain or invalidate their vote. He himself abstained. The Yes side won the referendum by a 54% to 46% margin, but Sant claimed to have won the referendum as the Yes vote was less than half of the whole registered electorate. Soon after the referendum, in April 2003, the Malta Labour Party (MLP) lost the general elections with a wider margin than expected by Sant himself and he tendered his resignation as party leader. He did, however, stand for election again, was challenged by two other candidates for the post (John Attard Montalto and Anglu Farrugia), but was re-elected party leader with 66% of votes cast by Labour Party delegates.