6.30pm Update - Labour replies

Foreigners who buy Maltese passports are being given the right to vote in general elections despite declaring that they are not living in Malta, PN deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami said today.

The government, he said, was already trying to buy votes in order to make up for the continued loss of the people's trust due to unprecedented corrupt practices.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr Fenech Adami showed applications for a voting document filed by passport buyers from Russia, China and Azerbaijan.

In all, close to 100 people are involved.

The applicants had marked the applications stating that they did not reside in Malta for the last six months. Yet the Electoral Commission still included them in the electoral register, Dr Fenech Adami said. Living in Malta for six months is a requirement for the right to vote.

"Labour is losing all sense of decency every day, and it is now trying to buy votes," the PN deputy leader said. 

He said such goings on were a threat to democracy. He pointed out that the prime minister is politically responsible for the Electoral Office.

The PN, he said, would be taking steps to stop this 'corrupt practice'.

PN is determined to be destructive - Labour

In a reply, the Labour Party dismissed the PN's claims as scaremongering. It is the courts, not politicians, which decide on the eligibility of voters based on residency requirements, the party said. Furthermore, the citizenship investment programme was run by an independent regulator appointed with the PN's agreement, it said. 

"In reality, the only cash for votes we've had in this legislature was in Gozo, when private works were carried out using public funds," the PL said. The reference is to a controversy involving former Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono, whose husband has been charged with misappropriating public funds.