Maltese abroad have right to vote

Last week, the Maltese newspapers gave prominence to the European Court of Human Rights' ruling that prohibiting nationals living abroad from exercising their right to vote at national elections constitutes a breach of their human rights.

A lot of fuss for nothing. In Malta we have known this since 2003.

In the Constitutional case instituted by me, with sentence given in March 2003, the presiding judge gave a clear definition of residence, which stated that "residence does not necessarily mean physical presence in a country, but could also be occasional presence". Ergo, Maltese living abroad had a right to vote at national elections.

Unfortunately, the concoction of the Nationalist Party and Labour Party duopoly, which includes, among others, a hybrid mixture of a certain number of hypocritical mediaeval mindsets and opportunistic moderate progressives (or progressive moderates... choose your pick), was too intent on safeguarding and entrenching their limited party interests to even bother to take into account the rights of all Maltese citizens.

A simple case of party political arrogance at its best.