Last year following the intervention of Alternattiva Demokratika, which exposed the illegal deletion of non-Maltese EU citizens from the electoral register for last year’s European parliament elections, Prime Minister Gonzi was advised by the Attorney-General to instruct the the Labour Party and Nationalist Party appointed Electoral Commission to reinstate those voters on the electoral register, the European Commission is now also investigating the issue.

Prof Arnold Cassola, AD Spokesperson for EU and International Affairs, said, ‘The European Commission is now investigating this irregular behaviour by the Maltese Electoral Commission and is also making enquiries to ascertain if there are other instances of discrimination vis a vis EU citizens residents in Malta with regards to their voting rights in European Parliament elections.”

Michael Briguglio, AD Chairperson, added, “Alternattiva Demokratika will keep being active to ensure that all those entitled to vote in elections, whether general, local or European, are be entitled to exercise this fundamental right. Unfortunately, both the Nationalist and Labour Parties do not seem to consider all voters as being equal in their rights.”

In the meantime, AD is in possession of the most recent recent submission to the European Commission, by resident Oison Jones-Dillon in this regard. This correspondence points out that the Maltese Electoral Commission composed of representatives from both the opposition Labour Party and governing Nationalist Party, to the exclusion of all other political parties denied non-Maltese EU citizens the right to even enrol on the (Maltese) European Parliament electoral register until October 1st 2008. As a consequence, of the 21,124 non Maltese EU citizens presently enrolled on the local council electoral registers, a mere 2, 604 are likewise enrolled on the European Parliament one. The disenfranchised 18,520 constitute over 5% of the entire European Parliament electorate in Malta.

In the meantime ALDE MEP Robert Rochefort Deeply has tabled a written question to the European Commission.

Permalink: EU citizens’s electoral rights – EU Commission investigating