An Electoral Commission proposal to revoke the voting rights “mistakenly” granted to Maltese passport buyers without waiting for a court decision was yesterday met by stiff resistance by the Nationalist Party.

This recommendation was made before Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit, who was hearing the first five of 91 PN applications aimed at striking the names of successful citizenship scheme applicants off the Electoral Register.

The proposal was made after none of the voters turned up in court. During the ensuing debate on the way forward, Ian Refalo, the Electoral Commission’s legal counsel, proposed to immediately delete the names of those new citizens granted voting rights “by mistake”.

Foreigners acquiring a Maltese passport need a written application because they are not granted an automatic right

The PN lawyers immediately objected and argued that such a move would be a “dangerous precedent”.

Lawyer Paul Borg Olivier said that, by law, any deletions or additions to the Electoral Register could be carried out upon the orders of a court, which was the only authority vested with such powers.

The hearings will resume on July 12.

Last week, this newspaper reported that, after reviewing the complaints filed by the PN, the Electoral Commission had conceded that 39 out of the 91 objections were justified.

The PN had cried foul, saying a number of foreigners who had acquired Maltese nationality through the citizenship scheme had been granted voting rights “abusively and mysteriously”.

By law, foreigners acquiring a Maltese passport still need to submit a written application, because they are not granted such a right automatically.

The PN said that in some cases, the applicants had declared that they did not reside in Malta, whereas in other cases, the application had been accepted even though it did not bear the applicant’s signature.