945 voters back on the register

The 945 non-Maltese voters who were recently struck off the register were reinstated officially through a court order yesterday.

The procedure to have them back in the register was initiated by the Electoral Commission after it was forced to reconsider its decision to remove them following the Attorney General's advice to the Prime Minister that the move was illegal.

The Commission had asked EU citizens living here and who were on the register for the 2004 elections to re-apply to be entitled to vote.

A few small adverts appeared advising them of the need to apply again but many missed it and they ended up getting struck off the register. But the Prime Minister asked for the Attorney General's opinion on this procedure. The AG said EU citizens could only be struck off if they specifically asked for this to happen or were no longer eligible, through a court order, for instance.

Yesterday, the saga officially came to an end when the bailiff read out the names, one by one, of the people who had presented a case against the Commission individually. Later, he added that all the people whose names had not been read out would also be reinstated through a court order.

Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna then had them reinstated and informed them that they may go and pick up their voting document from either their local police station or local council.