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Petition calling for electronic embassy-voting system hits 1K signatures
Petition calling for establishment of electronic embassy-voting system for Maltese living abroad hits 1,211 signatures.
14 January 2013, 12:00am
Nestor Laiviera
Nestor Laiviera
2 min read
We are concerned that hundreds of Maltese nationals resident outside Malta will not be able to vote in the general elections on March 9, 2013, the petition warns.
A petition calling for an electronic embassy-voting system allowing Maltese residents living abroad to vote in the 2013 general election from their country of residence reached 1,211 signatures.
The petition is urging Maltese politicians to consider establishing an electronic voting system for the upcoming 2013 election, whereby Maltese residents living abroad are provided with the opportunity to vote from the country they are living in.
The petition is also calling for an end to the practice whereby Maltese voters living abroad are expected to fly to Malta to be able to cast their vote, which the petition says is discouraging many from doing so.
"We are concerned that hundreds of Maltese nationals resident outside Malta will not be able to vote in the general elections on March 9, 2013," the petition kicks off by saying.
"The demands of employment or graduate and postgraduate education make it difficult to leave the country of residence in order to vote. The financial and logistical burden of travel to Malta, even with subsidised flights, introduces an unfair obstruction to voting to those who cannot afford it."
It argues that allowing Maltese living abroad to vote from abroad "whether via electronic voting systems, postal voting, or voting at Maltese embassies, should be a natural choice for any Maltese electoral system."
It calls on Maltese politicians to "consider the need for an absentee ballot system for Maltese nationals resident outside Malta, and make it a key part of the 2013 election campaign."
Despite unequivocal statements by Air Malta chairman Louis Farrugia in January 2012 that the cheap election flights are "unaffordable" for the recently-restructured national carrier, Air Malta, government decided to go ahead with them.
The petition's signatories include influential Maltese political figures, such as opinionist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who wrote: "I agree with the arguments put forward in the petition: that Maltese citizens with a vested interest in choosing the government of Malta (and a duty to help choose it) should not be subjected to major expense or disruption in the fulfilment of their legal right to vote."
Another signatory is Resources and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino's wife, Lourdes Pullicino, who wrote, "Your vote is a right."
The petition also has a Facebook group:
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what about Maltese living in Malta who have been sent on short assignments abroad, even by parastatal bodies, who cannot be in Malta on the 2nd or 9th March to vote because of their commitments. Do these not have a right to vote too.!!!
