Electoral Commission members should resign

The Electoral Commission is the body that is supposed to conduct elections and ensure that those voters who are entitled to cast their vote do so.

However, it now seems that this Commission has fallen foul of the law by removing around 1,000 people from the electoral roll just because they are European citizens living in Malta.

Surely every Tom, Dick and Harry knows that unless a person is interdicted by the courts, has emigrated or has been away from Malta for a considerable time, his or her name should not be removed from the electoral register.

This latest move by the Commission is not only illegal but discriminatory as no Maltese voter is ever removed from the register as long as he does not fall in one of the three categories that I have just mentioned.

Another matter I would like to bring up about the Electoral Commission is why they close their offices at midnight on the Friday before next day's voting. Why is the office not open all day Saturday - voting day - so anyone who arrives from abroad on that day or anyone who has lost his vote may collect it before polls close?

Surely it should not be difficult for the Electoral Commission to do so.

In Italy where millions of voters go to the polls, the local council offices in the various towns and villages are open until the very last minute. Is it too much to ask the Commission to do the same here?

After this latest gaffe the Prime Minister, as minister responsible for the Electoral Commission, should ask for every single member's resignation after the June 6 European and Council elections. If they refuse to resign they should be forced out as they have made us the laughing stock of Europe on such a simple yet extremely important matter for the voter who has been removed from the electoral roll.