It was astonishing to read (January 11) that our electoral register casts such doubts on its correctness when it lists so many persons who have gone beyond their 100th birthday. Have our political parties, in this age of information technology, stopped trying to weed out ghost voters?

I keep a record of Maltese centenarians. My research starts from the records of the book of deaths (circa 1870) held by the Luqa parish church (thanks to Fr Gordon Refalo) which includes deaths at St Vincent de Paul residence. 

I have on record that there are 17 living centenarians right now against 24 in 2013. Since the turn of the century I have recorded 188 reaching 100, although these records cannot be all that accurate. This is because some relatives are not eager to show their loved ones reaching this venerable age and others do not announce their passing away. 

Also, my information is gathered principally from newspapers, death announcements on the social media and from several friends kind enough to let me know of such persons from their sources. 

To have an accurate list of how many centenarians are still alive, one needs to go through the records of local parishes as well as those of Identity Malta (formerly public registry). 

Some time ago I proposed that the Social Security Department (in my opinion perhaps the only correct source) should inform the Office of the President about nationals reaching their 100th year. The President would then send a card to the new centenarian. 

I am very proud to have a copy of congratulations sent to my grandmother by Queen Elizabeth in 1972. In fact the Queen recently reintroduced the custom for anyone within the Commonwealth if she is informed of such an occasion.  Let us follow this example.