Updated 4.30pm with PN statement
EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders has been urged to ensure that Maltese citizens in quarantine are not denied their right to vote.
The appeal was made by independent candidate Arnold Cassola in a letter to the commissioner.
He pointed out that unlike other democratic countries, voters in Malta cannot resort to electronic and/or postal votes. All voters have to be physically present in a polling station or else they cannot vote.
"Because of the COVID outbreak, there are at the moment around 30,000 people confined to their homes and isolated from everybody else because of quarantine measures. This constitutes around 10% of the voting population.
"In other democratic countries, this does not constitute any problem since these people could vote by electronic or postal means. In Malta, instead, these people would be deprived of their right to vote because it would be illegal for them to be physically present in the polling station," he observed.
He said he had written to the Electoral Commission to ask what measures have been taken to ensure that anybody confined at home can still vote at elections and the reply he got was that talks were being held with the health authorities.
These discussions had been going on for 18 months and no tangible result and arrangement has been reached. There was a big risk that thousands of Maltese citizens would be deprived of their right to vote, he argued.
PN says government should amend the law
The government should table in Parliament any amendments that may be necessary to enable persons in quarantine to exercise their fundamental right to vote, the Nationalist Party said on Thursday.
It said it had been discussing this with the Electoral Commission for months.
It noted that the number of people who test positive for Covid-19 and those who are ordered to stay in quarantine is increasing.
The party said the government should find a solution as soon as possible by making it possible for everyone to vote while at the same time safeguarding transparency in the electoral process and avoiding the possibility of abuse.