The Electoral Commission changed its policy and started to "stop and verify if in doubt" after the Nationalist Party challenged the voting rights of 91 foreigners, a court heard today.
Chief Electoral Commissioner Joseph Church took the witness stand this afternoon to testify in a court case involving one of the 91 people whom the PN are calling to be struck off the electoral register because they do not satisfy the requirements.
Ezrilevna Kon Lyubov's application to obtain voting rights was exhibited before Mr Church, who confirmed that her application - which had been approved - contained a number of missing details, including the dates of her entry and exit from Malta.
In order for a person to acquire the right to vote, he or she must be a Maltese citizen who has lived in Malta for at least six months in the last 18 months prior to the publication of the electoral register. The last electoral register was published in April.
Mr Church told the court that the general praxis in the past was for the Commission to approve all applications to vote unless "obvious factors" were lacking.
"I questioned this and had in fact issued written guidelines stating that, if in doubt, we stop and verify. So if doubts are raised, we now send out a notification for the applicant to provide us with more details."
Presented with Ms Lyubov's application, Electoral Commission secretary George Saliba confirmed that her arrival and departure details were missing. Asked whether any verifications were conducted, Mr Saliba replied in the negative, adding that the Commission relied on the signed declaration forwarded by Identity Malta.
"We now have a new policy stating that there should be other verifications - such as ensuring that the form is fully completed," Mr Saliba said.
"When was this new policy introduced?" lawyer Paul Borg Olivier asked.
"When the court cases were initiated," came the reply.
Inspector Frankie Sammut, representing the Principal Immigration Officer, testified before Magistrate Monica Vella that police did not have any information on the movements of Ms Lyubov. He explained that the police would only acquire the information of people entering and exiting Malta from non-Schengen countries.
"So this lack of information means that either Ms Lyubov entered Malta from a Schengen country or did not enter Malta at all," Dr Borg Olivier qualified.
An ARMS Ltd representative was asked to provide water consumption figures for the registered address, but testified that he had not been provided with an address.
Lawyer Ian Refalo, appearing for the Electoral Commission, objected to this request, arguing that a person might not consume much water. Dr Borg Olivier retaliated that these so-called 'misers' had forked out €650,000 for their passports.
The last person to take the witness stand was Identity Malta chairman Joseph Vella Bonnici who, however, declared that he did not come prepared with details of how Ms Lyubov citizenship was issued because that decision would have been taken by the Justice Ministry.
Dr Borg Olivier argued that in order for a foreigner to become a naturalised Maltese citizen, there must be a reason supplanting this decision. If an individual obtained citizenship through the Individual Investor Programme, then the person must have resided in Malta for a year.
Dr Borg Olivier added that Ms Lyubov had been granted citizenship and voting rights on the same day - May 27, 2015.
Magistrate Vella instructed Mr Vella Bonnici to gather all information which might shed light on Ms Lyubov's residency status.
The case continues on September 12.