I made 44 phone calls to get to vote

It is the same story in every election in Malta. 

As soon as the polling date is announced, Maltese people living abroad start asking the same question: Will you be flying back home to vote?

Many readers must already be thinking: hah! They’re coming for a “free” holiday at the taxpayers’ expense.

Well, that’s not quite how I see it, and that stereotypical caricature misses the point. The subsidised flight is not a perk. It is a hurdle. And it raises the uncomfortable question: why is exercising a basic democratic right so unnecessarily difficult?

On May 4, just after 8am, I picked up my phone with a sense of resignation. I knew this would be an hours-long ordeal but I underestimated just how dysfunctional the process would be.

My calls did not even connect. Attempt after attempt failed without even ringing. I double-checked the number. Yes, it was correct.

I tried again. And again. On attempt number 43 I finally got through to someone. We started the booking process, it was all going so well, until the line dropped mid-sentence.

At that point the question became unavoidable: why was I putting myself through this?

I tried again. On attempt number 44 I finally succeeded. But I did not feel relief or a sense of achievement. I felt deflated and ultimately humiliated at having to “beg” for access to something that should be straightforward.

Maltese living abroad go through this palaver every single election and each time we are left questioning our life choices. Many simply give up. Some cannot afford the time off. Others cannot secure seats.

Flights from Zurich over the early voting weekend were sold out within hours as they clashed with a Swiss holiday, leaving voters to jostle for seats with holidaymakers.

A few told me they will not vote until a better system is available. This is not about money. Many are willing to pay their own way.

Nor is it about entitlement. If the right to vote for Maltese migrants were restricted, then it would at least be clear. But those of us who still have the right to vote, want the realistic option to use it.

The problem is something else:  a system that nominally grants the right to vote while making its exercise unnecessarily burdensome. And yes, there is an uncomfortable contradiction here.

I am criticising a system I have just used. But that is precisely the point. Availing oneself of a flawed system does not make it less flawed. If anything, it highlights how outdated it is.

In 2026, relying on a telephone booking system is indefensible. It turns participation into a test of persistence (and patience) rather than a basic civic act.

There are better alternatives.  Postal voting – already standard practice in countries like Switzerland and Italy – would eliminate the need for travel altogether. It sounds so simple. And yet, it feels like we are reinventing the wheel or spouting heresy whenever it is raised.

Voting at embassies could be another option, though geography remains a barrier for many.

A functional online booking system would be a start.

The real issue is not the cost of the flights. It is whether the government genuinely wants its citizens abroad to vote, whether it acknowledges that we still care enough to want to exercise our civic duty, despite the current hurdles. Because if the right to vote means anything, it should not come with this many obstacles attached.