"Certain individuals" have admitted to the police that they voted for the Nationalist Party in the last election because their votes were 'bought', Labour deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia has told The Sunday Times.

Six months after making claims that the PN had swayed hundreds of voters - in his opinion possibly enough to tilt the cliffhanger election - Dr Farrugia said he had been unofficially informed that the police had referred evidence to the Attorney General to establish whether there were enough grounds to charge a number of individuals.

"I believe somebody should be prosecuted. At least one person has admitted that he voted PN because he was granted certain favours," Dr Farrugia said.

The MLP deputy leader said the government should resign and call fresh elections if police investigations yield any form of 'vote-buying' in the run-up to the March election.

Dr Farrugia, a lawyer and former police inspector, said he had asked the Police Commissioner to relay him a copy of the investigations report so that it can be analysed by international observers.

Questions sent to the police last Wednesday asking whether the investigations had yielded any results remained unanswered.

But Dr Farrugia maintained that Nationalist activists had hard cash to convince voters, mainly Labour-leaning, to abstain from going to the polls or vote PN.

"I know of people who had a kitty of €250,000 to hand out to voters. During election week they paid €115 and up to €345 per vote," he had said.

The Labour deputy leader had claimed that there were two ministers who issued permits to particular families in the run-up to the election. He also said that major importers had delivered white goods for free to a number of people in Cottonera up to election day in an attempt to persuade them to vote PN.

He stood by his claims yesterday and insisted that recent reports served to strengthen his resolve: "The permits issued by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, the excessive squandering of public finances in the last five weeks before the election made by a caretaker government... I'm convinced the government used its power to get votes."

Dr Farrugia said that the government should shoulder responsibility for any wrongdoing, even if just one case of corrupt practice was established.

"Public outcry dictates that the government should resign. We cannot tolerate these kinds of things in a democracy," he said.

Dr Farrugia has taken his cause overseas, and raised his allegations when he addressed an OSCE meeting in Canada last week.

He maintained that he had proposed to the OSCE that it should send over observers in the next general election to ensure there is no wrongdoing.