a former friends of the earth malta activist, manduca never feared to express his concerns in a country where the urban sprawl has eaten away most of the natural terrain, criticising adverse political decisions that favoured building magnates rather than the silent countryside. active with the maltese green party "alternattiva demokratika", in 1992 he chained himself with fourteen others at the gates of the auberge de castille, the maltese premier's office, in protest against malta's shameful electoral system due to its 16% threshold. malta remains the only european union country with only two parties represented in parliament.