The first five foreigners arraigned by the PN for having allegedly been granted a vote abusively did not turn up in court today.

The five were among 91 people who the PN says, were abusively granted the right to vote after they acquired Maltese citizenship. 

During the court proceedings today, Prof Ian Refalo who is representing the Electoral Commission, proposed that in cases where both sides agreed  that these citizens had been granted the voting rights "by mistake",  the commission should proceed to delete them from the register straight away.

Lawyers representing the Nationalist Party said that such move would set a "dangerous precedent".

Lawyer Paul Borg Olivier said that by law any deletions or additions to the electoral register could be carried out only on the orders of a court, which was the only authority vested with such powers.

The five foreigners will be summoned for another hearing on July 12.

Last week Times of Malta revealed that after reviewing the complaints filed by the PN, the commission had conceded that 39 out of the 91 complaints were justified.