zanussi ZBQ665 electronic programmer not working?

oven, grill, "mains on " switch & thermostat all working fine. Problem is the Electronic Programmer display coming on only intermittently. when it does i can switch between "end of cooking", "minute minder" functions etc just by pressing anywhere on the control panel facia - not just the Elec Programmer control buttons! 2 questions. 1) is this an electrical "short" & how do i fix it? 2) do you think its ok just to use oven without elec.programmer?