Just under 700 Italians residing in Malta yesterday voted for their country's European Parliament candidates at the Italian Embassy in Floriana.

According to Italy's electoral system, citizens could vote for the party list of their choice, and write down the surnames of up to three candidates from that list if they wished to. Italians could vote for candidates contesting in five constituencies covering Italy's 20 regions.

Respecting the "European spirit" of yesterday's election, other embassies of European Union member states made it possible for their countrymen residing in Malta to vote for MEP hopefuls in their respective countries.

The Italian embassy, however, was the only one to open its doors and create a polling station. Other embassies, including the French, the German, the British High Commission and others, used a postal voting system as well as proxy voting.

Non-Maltese European citizens could have also chosen to be included in the Maltese electoral register of Malta, in which case they would have been eligible to vote for Maltese EP candidates. A total of 1,174 chose to do so in time to be included in the current electoral register.

The same system was not adopted for Maltese citizens residing in EU countries. The Maltese government, instead, offered Maltese who were eligible to vote the possibility of coming over to Malta, offering Air Malta tickets at a nominal price of Lm15.