Labour MP Anġlu Farrugia has asked the Police Commissioner to find out whether voting documents were bought by Nationalists ahead of the March 8 election, which saw the Nationalist Party win by a slim majority of just over 1,500 votes.
He alleged yesterday that hundreds of votes may have been exchanged for money and he presented a three-page report detailing cases with names and the amount of cash purportedly paid.
Dr Farrugia met Police Commissioner John Rizzo about the allegations and speaking to the media afterwards outside the police headquarters in Floriana said Mr Rizzo had assigned two officers to probe the allegations.
Asked later what he meant by the "selling of votes", Dr Farrugia said there were various ways in which this could be done. One way was to promise a vote to a candidate and receive money. The voter would then take a picture of the ballot sheet with a mobile phone as proof of having voted for that candidate.
Another way was for a voter supporting a party, for example the Labour Party, to trade his voting document for money, ensuring that the vote would be lost as the document would be destroyed, Dr Farrugia explained.
He declined to give details about particular cases, saying only that the price paid for votes ranged from €50 (Lm21.47) to €150 (Lm64.40), although in one case a bonus of €1,500 (Lm648.67) was also allegedly paid for a vote.
Dr Farrugia said his report also details "favours" granted in the days before the election so that, he alleged, those involved would vote for the Nationalist Party.
He felt it was his duty as a citizen and as a representative of the people in Parliament to draw up the report after he had been approached over such allegations. He was aware that letters with similar allegations had also been sent to the police. He said his report mentions two members of the former Nationalist Cabinet.
He had started to receive information about the alleged sale of votes after the Nationalist victory, he added.
Asked about the forthcoming election of a new MLP leader following the resignation of Alfred Sant, Dr Farrugia said he was interested in the post but would say whether he will contest or not in due course.