Amending the Bill – paving the way for voters

The Labour Party is confident that the minor differences present in the private member’s bill regarding amendments to electoral laws, should be ironed out to the satisfaction of both parties. The bill presented last week to the clerk of the House by MLP deputy leader George Vella and Labour whip Joe Mizzi, is a hefty document containing 57 clauses which have been mostly fully accepted by both sides.

This was confirmed by MLP deputy leader Dr Joe Brincat, whilst talking to MaltaToday. "It is common in various countries for proposals to be made by individual members of parliament. This time round both the Government and the Opposition have a keen interest in reaching an agreement over the issue, which agreement should be legal. Basically because both sides benefit from the citizens’ votes."

Dr Brincat explained how in many instances there might be cases where an electoral register is inflated with the names of people who are deceased or who have stopped living in Malta altogether. "At times people are not traceable and if no notification is given to the police about their whereabouts, it is extremely difficult to ascertain whether the person has a right to vote or not." The most thorny issue seems to be based on what the Nationalist Party consider is a control tactic. In fact the Nationalist side is accusing the MLP of wanting to control people’s lives, by demanding details on when they go abroad, where they go to and why they go abroad. More to the point, according to the MLP is when they come back to Malta. This concerns mainly persons who travel abroad to study or to work for long periods of time and who might as a consequence, lose their right to vote in Malta.

"In my opinion it is all a matter of finding the right wording for the text. This bill is a draft and as such is open to changes and alterations. These will come about through discussions and observations made. I am glad that both parties seem to have agreed on the majority of the proposals and what is left now is some fine tuning to be made in due course."

Whilst the Nationalist part is claiming Labour of wanting to deprive people of their right to vote, Labour insists that it is a matter of being precise and ascertaining that whoever votes in Malta, still possesses the right to do so.