The infamous referendum  Let me explain since youre not Maltese   The yes votes did in fact surpass the no votes slightly but despite that less than  of the total voting population actually voted yes Therefore the Nationalist party celebrated because the yes votes surpassed the no votes and concurrently the Labour Party celebrated because less than  of the population voted yes Can you imagine what it was like Carcades from both parties mass meetingsboth claiming that WE WON Seriously  Therefore there was complete chaos in Malta for a few weeks because nobody could figure out whether we were actually going to join the EU or not Finally the Primeminister was eventually forced to hold an early general election to clear the misunderstandings   Quotes from the letter  The Christian Democrats Nationalists now in power are assured of a coming election victory They are also in for a resounding defeat in a referendum on Maltas European membership  There should be an amalgamation of Election and Referendum The Nationalists should say ok we are going to have a referendum on Europe this coming election will serve also as a referendum on Europe  This is what the Nationalist party was forced to do  Now obviously the Nationalists still claim that they won the referendum while Labour still claim the opposite But the point is an early general election was held due to this In other words its hilarious really the referendum was utterly futile Our entry in the EU was in fact determined by a general election  Now that you know what happened perhaps you could reword that phrase or somethingwhatever you thing is right