I am directed by the Electoral Commission to refer to criticism and comments appearing in the local media regarding the striking off of a number of voters from the European Union electoral register.
The Commission has no problem with criticism but would like to reply in order to make its position clear.
The Commission is required by law to ensure that the electoral register continuously reflects the position in Malta of those entitled to vote. This is essential to a healthy democratic process.
It is therefore charged with the insertion of those voters who become entitled to vote and with the deletion of such voters who no longer remain so entitled. This is not always an easy task or a task shorn of controversy.
In respect of entitlement to vote in European elections, non-Maltese European citizens resident in Malta are entitled to elect to vote either in Malta or in their home member state; they are not entitled to a double vote and have to make a choice.
Registration in the Maltese register depends on their making a declaration that they intend to exercise their right to vote in Malta only.
Once registration is obtained in the Maltese register, subsequent to such a declaration, then the Commission must inform the home member state in order to delete such person from its register.
Regarding the EU electoral register, when the Maltese Parliament enacted the related European directive it introduced a proviso to section 14 of the Act which states that the Commission shall have the right, whenever it deems it opportune, to require a person whose name appears on the EU electoral register to make a fresh declaration that he intends to vote in Malta as provided in the Act.
Unfortunately, this proviso does not appear in the directive.
The proviso must have been introduced by Parliament as it is quite possible, with the level of movement that exists, that those who choose to vote in Malta in one election may have moved on.
The proviso introduced in the law must be understood in this sense. It was the desire of the Commission not to deprive such individuals of their right to vote but to ensure that if they had moved on, they would be able to be enrolled and exercise their right to vote in another member state.
This is what motivated the Commission to require a declaration from such voters that they intended to vote in Malta. Rather than being an action intended to deprive people of their right to vote, it was an action intended to help them in the exercise of such a right by calling their attention to the necessity of making this choice.
The Commission published a number of notices at regular intervals in the local media drawing such voters' attention to the need to make this declaration and had kept the competent authorities duly informed of the notices which were being published.
Nobody objected to the publication or content of these notices until the Commission took the logical step of removing the names of those who did not come forward to make the declaration as it assumed they were choosing to vote in another member state.
When the issue arose, the Commission took the required advice and, on further careful reading of the European directive, it concluded that it should not remove a voter from the register unless he so requests or it has evidence that he has lost his entitlement to vote.
It immediately took the necessary steps to correct the register as the European directive supersedes the Maltese enactment.