The Nationalist Party will be going to court to get information from Identity Malta, after its requests for information related to the holding of elections were rebuffed for the past 18 months, PN leader Adrian Delia said on Sunday.

He said PN representatives met the Electoral Commission last week and declared they would go to court if the information, held by Identity Malta, was not forthcoming.

The commission wrote to Identity Malta multiple times, but Identity Malta only sent documentation with missing information, Dr Delia said.

The information relates to people listed on the Electoral Register, particularly in view of the granting of citizenship, as well as about people struck off the register.

The Nationalist Party has a legal right to receive this information from the commission, Dr Delia said.

"How could the government be serious about constitutional reform if it could not even get its own agency, Identity Malta, to give the required information to the Electoral Commission?"

If the government thought that it will continue breaking the law without consequence, then it was wrong, he said.

How could there be certainty about the electoral process when information was not fully available. It was basic that the political parties should know who had the right to vote.

Speaking at the  PN club in San Ġwann, the Opposition leader said the government was trying to distract public attention from a recent Eurobarometer survey showing that crime and immigration were among the top concerns of the Maltese.

Investment in the police corps remained among the lowest in European countries, he said, adding that further investment in the sector was needed. 

“The government is closing one eye to wrongdoing, and closing both eyes when that wrongdoing comes from members close to the state,” he said.

Education

Despite some sectors doing well, education was not being given its due priority, he said, adding that Nationalist administrations invested in education.

It was sad that matters had reached a stage where a large majority of educators would change their career path if they could, and that very few students were joining teacher courses at University. Socialist governments always preferred to give education less importance than it was due.

Health

Turning his attention to the health sector, Dr Delia called on the government to reinstate an immediate response unit for mental health that was scrapped under the Labour administration.

“This doesn’t cost millions, but the government scrapped it,” Dr Delia said.

He also called for the government to explain why the unit was shut down.

Mental health would remain a top priority for the Nationalist party, he concluded.