Green MEPs ask Commission on MLP move to bar 1,600 voters

Two Green MEPs have asked the European Commission whether it intended to take action against the "illegal" attempt by the Malta Labour Party to prevent over 1,600 Maltese citizens from voting in the election for Maltese MEPs in June, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo said yesterday.

Green MEPs Monica Frasson and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who put the parliamentary question on behalf of AD, added in their question that a number of Maltese employed within EU institutions were among those included in the list of voters that the MLP was objecting to.

Dr Vassallo said that although the law gave the political parties the right to ask for names of people who were away from the island to be struck from the electoral register, this time round, the MLP did not include the name of Arnold Cassola, AD spokesman on EU affairs.

Although the Labour Party had objected to Professor Cassola's name in the electoral register before last April's general election, Professor Cassola had successfully challenged the MLP's action and had voted in both the EU referendum and the general election.

Moreover, on March 21 last year, in a case instituted by AD on behalf of Professor Cassola, the Constitutional Court had made it clear that the word "residence" did not mean the physical presence of a person in the country where he was to vote.

Speaking during a news conference in front of the law courts in Valletta, Dr Vassallo said: "The new law for European elections in Malta, explicitly states that all Maltese citizens living in the 25 EU countries have the right to vote and stand for elections in Malta.

"Those who received letters (to have their names struck from the electoral register) should not be intimidated by the MLP's anti-democratic attitude."

The AD chairman said that the Labour Party's determination to strike off certain voters' names off the electoral register had harmed the MLP's credibility during the last general election and would do the same this time round.

Those who had received letters informing them that the Labour Party was asking for their names to be taken off the voters' list should defend their right in court.

AD would make it a point to be present in court when these cases were due to be heard to help, at no charge, those who called on it for assistance.