Alternattiva Demokratika has welcomed a statement by the Data and Information Protection Commissioner aimed to curtail dissemination of sensitive data of vulnerable voters in hospitals and retirement homes.

The General Elections Act provides for the information relative to residents in retirement homes and patients in hospitals to be supplied to the Electoral Commission and political parties on a daily basis from date when the writ proclaiming the general election date is published. In the case of hospitals this information is to include wards where patients are placed.

AD deputy chairman Carmel Cacopardo questioned the purpose of providing such lists so early before polling day when the majority of patients would be returning home before the election and would not be casting their vote at the hospital and submitted a complaint to the commissioner on December 18.

The Data Protection Commissioner replied that the Electoral Commission should require the submission of data, in terms the General Elections Act, not earlier than as from the Monday before polling day.

Mr Cacopardo welcomed the Commissioner’s recommendation which cut to size the draconian provisions of the law thereby protecting patients from the unwarranted intrusion of the PN and the PL.