Legal advice sought over non-Maltese voters

The Electoral Commission is likely to seek legal advice after being told by the Attorney General that its decision to strike off 945 non-Maltese voters from the electoral register was illegal.

"There is a meeting this evening (yesterday) in which the commission will assess the situation and, as has happened in similar circumstances, we will probably seek a legal opinion," chief electoral commissioner Edward Gatt told The Sunday Times.

The urgent meeting was called after the Prime Minister late on Friday gave the commission until tomorrow to come up with a solution that will allow these 945 people to vote in the June 6 European Parliament election.

Asked for a reaction to the Attorney General's opinion yesterday, Mr Gatt said it would be premature to comment before the commission decided how to proceed. He also declined to comment on whether he would resign should the commission be forced to go back on its decision.

Controversy erupted at the end of last month when many of these voters realised they had been left out of the electoral register for the coming election.

The commission had decided to disenfranchise non-EU voters who had been registered for the 2004 election and asked them to apply again to be included in the register for this year.

A few small adverts were placed in the newspapers but many of the people who were previously registered did not realise they had to register again and were left out.

The Attorney General said this practice was clearly illegal under both EU and local law, which states that irrespective of whether voters are nationals or from another member state, they can only be removed it they ask for it or if they do not qualify to be on the register, through a court sentence for instance.

The head of the European Parliament's representation in Malta, Julian Vassallo, who wrote to the Prime Minister last Tuesday asking him to intervene, yesterday welcomed the AG's opinion.

During a news conference, he said it was totally in line with the position of his office and urged the commission to come up with a solution.

Dr Vassallo had tough words for the commission, saying there was an attitude problem on its part but he would not comment on whether the Commissioner should resign.

However, he said that at times it looked as if the commission was doing these voters a favour if it allowed them to vote, when this was a fundamental right of every EU citizen.

He also said high ranking EP officials in Brussels were "very concerned" about the situation. Should the commission stick to its guns, Dr Vassallo said he would be writing to the President and Secretary-General of the EP.

Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola also criticised the commission's decision in a separate news conference, saying the Electoral Commissioner should apologise.