ID cards are not required when voting, the Chief Electoral Commissioner said yesterday, contradicting Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela.
“You do not need any ID cards to vote. You only need your official voting documents issued by the Electoral Commission,” the commissioner, Joseph Church, said.
“And, as the law currently stands, you can vote without the newly introduced ID card in elections.”
He was reacting to Mr Abela’s plea for those who have not signed up for their new ID card to do so as soon as possible as this was required when casting one’s ballot.
Speaking with the Times of Malta on the sidelines of a press conference on the new ID card roll-out last week, Mr Abela had said: “When the population is called upon to vote in a number of elections which are held, you are required to take your valid ID card… So naturally every person who has not updated their ID card, the appeal is for them to do this as soon as possible, as it is used for several reasons, among them, to go and present, along with voting documents.”
Mr Abela had added that, prior to the introduction of the new cards, the validity of previous ID documents used to be extended through a legal notice to allow it to be used for travel and other functions. The new smart cards are valid for 10 years.
You do not need any ID cards to vote
Mr Church yesterday said that, following Mr Abela’s declaration, he had written to the government to clarify the voting issue and stressed that the law would have to be changed for ID cards to be required to vote in any election.
Questions sent to the Home Affairs Ministry were not replied to by the time of writing.
Nearly 10,000 people have still not applied for their new cards. Mr Abela had said that these had not done so for several reasons, among them “carelessness”.
Felix Vella, from Identity Malta’s Identity Management Office, yesterday also clarified that there was “no connection” between ID cards and the electoral register.
“Whoever is on the electoral register might not have an ID card and whoever has an ID card isn’t necessarily on the electoral register. If you are on the register and have your voting documents, then you have the right to vote,” he said.
Mr Church also stressed that the commission was responsible for the official list of voters and was a separate independent entity from the government and Identity Malta.
The Times of Malta has also learnt that the issue of which documents should be required to cast a ballot has been the subject of internal government debate in recent months. Sources said discussions had been held between the Electoral Commission and different stakeholders to review the current “costly” system by which voting documents were distributed by police officers to eligible voters.
“This system costs too much money, time and resources and we are considering changing it. The new ID cards are biometric and very secure. This could replace the voting document system. Realistically we would only need to introduce new card scanning equipment for this to happen,” the sources said.
Although it does not appear as though this would be in place by the next election, in 2018, the sources said it could be used for the European Parliament and local council elections in 2019.