PN claims voters were registered at Siġġiewi social housing still in shell form

The PN has accused the Labour Party of registering nearly a hundred voters as residents at a government housing project in Siġġiewi which is still under construction.

Addressing a press conference outside the Valletta law courts on Friday, Nationalist Party secretary general Michael Piccinino described the case as the systematic misuse of government housing and resources to gerrymander the upcoming local council elections.

The party filed court applications on Friday, requesting the reversal of registrations for the voters in question.

In the 2019 local council elections Labour had won Siġġiewi for the first time since local elections started being held in the mid-1990s, with a mere 70-vote advantage.

Addressing a press conference outside the courthouse on Friday, PN Secretary General Michael Piccinino, flanked by shadow minister Karol Aquilina and Charles Bonello president of PN college of local councillors, told reporters that 99 court applications had been filed.

“We have caught labour gerrymandering in Siġġiewi,” Piccinino said, explaining that as of last month, nobody had been registered as living at the housing project in question. “The moment the President signed off on the election, suddenly 99 people were registered as living there.”

He said that when PN representatives had visited the apartment block yesterday, they had found it to be still under construction, empty and unfinished. Most of the units had no front door and no electricity or water services were connected, Piccinino added.

Two thirds of the individuals registered as residing at the site were from Qormi, which is the district contested by housing minister Roderick Galdes.

Piccinino said that it was “evident that Labour is systematically using Government housing and resources to commit abuse.”

He stressed that the PN’s request was not for voters to be struck off the electoral register altogether, but that they be returned to their district. “Abuse is not acceptable,” he said.

PN and PL trade jabs

Later on Friday, the Labour Party issued a statement on the allegations, but refrained from denying the allegations. 

The PL said that the PN is trying to undermine faith in the electoral process. "They expect that people who qualify for social housing don't start the process to move into their homes," the governing party said. 

The PL noted that the PN's position is clear in that it is against the social housing project because it is classist. 

In response, the PN noted that the PL did not deny that it's committing electoral fraud, while stating that the party is in favour of social housing. 

"The PN will present all its evidence in court so that the truth emerges," the PN concluded.