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	Partit Laburista
Children	1
Residence(s)	Birkirkara, Malta
Website	www.mlp.org.mt

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

Education

Sant 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 - 1970 ENA in Paris and holds a Master of Business Management (with honors) from Boston University Graduate School of Management- specialising in International Business and Business Policy and a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard.

Career

Sant served as Second, and then First Secretary at the Malta Mission to the European Communities in Brussels between 1970 and 1975 when he resigned to undertake full-time studies in the USA. Between 1977 and 1978 on his return to Malta Sant erved as advisor on general and financial management at the Ministry of Parastatal and People's Industries and between 1978 and 1980 he served as the Managing Director of Medina Consulting Group. Sant returned to the public sector in 1980 as Executive Deputy Chairman with the Malta Development Corporation. He later also served as chairman and consultant to various parastatal and private companies.

Politics

Sant's fist political post with the Malta Labour Party was as chairman of its Department of Information (1982-92). During this time he also served as President of the Party (1984-88). He served a stint as the editor of the Party weekly Il-Helsien (1987-88).

Sant first stood for election in 1987. Although he was unsuccessful he was co-opeted to Parliament later that year. In 1992 following the resignation of Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici he was elected Party leader.

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.

Literary and Journalism

Dr Sant is an established writer (of both novels and short stories) and playwright and has published several books. His published works include the collected plays Min Hu Evelyn Costa?, "Kwart ta' mija" -- a collection of short stories, the novels L-Ewwel Weraq tal-Bajtar. Silg fuq Kemmuna, ”Fid dell tal-Katidral” , “Qabel tiftah l-inkjesta” and "La bidu la tmiem". His non-fiction works include Bejgh u Xiri, L-Impenn ghall-Bidla, (a collection of essays) and the political chronicle "28 ta' April, 1958", "Malta's European Challenge" and the autobiographical "Confessions of a European Maltese".

Sant was also the editor Tomorrow, a monthly English language magazine (1982-1985) and of Society, a quarterly opinions magazine, apart from authoring numerous articles.

Recent Illness

In December 2007 Sant was admitted to hospital where, it was later announced, he was treated for colon cancer. In January 2008 it was announced in a Labour Party conference that Alfred Sant is recovering well from surgery and will be fit to remain leader of the MLP.[1]