PN: 91% of sampled non-Maltese voters acquired voting right irregularly

In a press conference held outside court this afternoon, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said that the opposition had scrutinised a sample of the first 100 non-Maltese surnames in the electoral register and found 91 to have been in Malta less than the 6 month minimum residency requirement.

"The scandal is that you have people who do not satisfy the constitutional requirements yet are allowed to vote," said the opposition MP, denouncing what he called a corrupt system whereby people who had not set foot in Malta had been given a right to vote in the general elections.

Fenech Adami announced that the PN had filed no less than 91 individual court cases about this issue this morning, calling on the government to come clean and name this group of "faceless voters."

"What is stopping the Prime Minster from publishing the list of persons who bought Maltese citizenship?" Fenech Adami asked, adding that he was looking forward to the scrutiny this court case would bring to the issue.

Some of the applications, from people born in countries as far afield as Russia, Azerbaijan, China and Jordan were incomplete, he added.

After acquiring citizenship, buyers under the IIP scheme are normally not automatically entitled to vote, but must apply separately and satisfy a number of requirements, however Fenech Adami is alleging that a systematic bypassing of these requirements is taking place.

Describing it as "potentially a drop in the ocean," Fenech Adami explained that of the first 100 clearly non-Maltese surnames in the Electoral Register (and therefore registered to vote), 91% were "clearly irregular."

There is political responsibility for this, he said, as the OPM, which is responsible for maintaining the Electoral Register "is involved in this corruption."

"The Maltese people do not want a government chosen by the Chinese, Azeris, Russians," the PN deputy leader told reporters, quipping that the government was turning to foreigners while the electorate is abandoning them in droves.

Fenech Adami said he would be summoning Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the Electoral Commissioner and the CEO of Identity Malta as witnesses in the court cases, in order to explain themselves.