The Electoral Commission has been asked to investigate at least two cases of mistaken identity in the voting documents being delivered to every household in the run-up to the election on June 3.
Both cases, which were flagged on Thursday within a few hours of each other, involved a mismatch between the voter's personal details and their photo.
The reports were made amid concerns raised by the Nationalist Party about the "poor" quality of the documents, which it says can be easily erased.
The first case of mistaken identity involved the father of Nationalist Party candidate Ian Vassallo, who reported the matter on his Facebook account. Mr Vassallo said that when the police officer delivered the documents to his flat in Rabat, which is part of the same block in which his parents also reside, he was handed an additional document.
When I pointed this out to the officer, he asked me whether my father had a twin brother
“When I pointed this out to the officer, he asked me whether my father had a twin brother, because the extra document had both his photo and address but bore the name of another man whom I do not know,” Mr Vassallo said. The officer took back the additional voting document, and Mr Vassallo immediately flagged the case to the PN’s electoral office (Elcom).
Contacted by Times of Malta, Elcom director Matthew Mangion confirmed they had asked the Electoral Commission to investigate both this case and a similar incident in Żejtun. The latter case involved correct particulars but the wrong photo.
“We immediately contacted the Electoral Commission to verify whether there had been other cases, and we were told they would look into them,” he said.
Mr Mangion said that he did not recall similar mistakes in past elections.
“Unfortunately, when Identity Malta took over the responsibility for issuing personal documents, which were previously part of the Electoral Commission’s remit, we voiced concerns that this would happen,” he said and urged voters to verify that their personal details matched their photo.
“The worst case scenario would be if these mistakes were discovered on election day, because it would be too late to issue a new document,” he warned.
The head of the Labour Party’s electoral office, Louis Gatt, played down these ‘mistaken identity’ issues, saying that similar incidents had happened before. “In these cases, the Electoral Commission issues a special voting document, but in each election, there is always a handful of documents issued either with the wrong image or no photo at all,” Mr Gatt added.
Questions sent to the Electoral Commission and Identity Malta about the matter remained unanswered at the time of writing.