The Nationalist Party has initiated court cases calling for the deletion of  91 people who had purchased Maltese citizenship and were given the right to vote.

Addressing journalists outside the Law Courts this afternoon, PN deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami said these people had been being given the right to vote in general elections despite declaring that they were not living in Malta and had not been in Malta for 180 days as required by the Constitution.

The government, he said, was already trying to buy votes from these people. They include people from China, Azerbaijan, Russia, the United States and Jordan, among others.

He said the court cases – 91 separate cases for each of the people the PN had identified – were calling for them to be struck off the electoral register.

Dr Fenech Adami explained that the applicants had marked the applications stating that they did not reside in Malta for the last six months. Some actually admitted they were in Malta for 15 days but, somehow, their name was still included in the electoral register.

Living in Malta for six months out of the last 18 months was a requirement for the right to vote.

“This scandal is likely to be a scam. It is evident that these people were instigated to apply for voting rights. We expect the Electoral Commission and Identity Malta to investigate this institutionalised corruption,” he said.

“Our electoral register includes faceless people. People who no one knows who they are and yet they are allowed to vote,” he added.