The police have investigated one person in relation to claims made by a whistleblower that dead people’s identities were used to commit voter fraud and found the allegations to be unfounded, a police spokesperson has said.
The allegations were made in a court application last month by a man who also blew the lid off an alleged driving licence racket within Transport Malta, as a result of which three people are facing corruption charges in court.
The whistleblower, a man previously involved in the Labour Party and who served as secretary of the Balzan PL club, alleged that the ID cards of deceased Maltese citizens were fraudulently given to foreign residents who were then paid “thousands of euros” to vote for the Labour Party.
He claimed to personally know people who have assumed the name and identity of a deceased person in order to participate in the scheme.
In reply to questions sent by Times of Malta, the police said that these allegations had not been brought to its attention before the case became publicly known. To verify, the police said they contacted one of the two lawyers who signed the whistleblower’s application as well as the man who is currently residing overseas.
“Up till now, the Police Force has only received details about one person and by which the investigations carried out confirmed that the allegations were unfounded,” the spokesperson said.
The Labour Party has dismissed the allegations as fantasy while the Nationalist Party is calling for an investigation into the matter.
Identity Malta has denied claims that the public registry had failed to process death notifications and said that, when death notifications are processed, the ID cards of the deceased are also collected.
The electoral commission has also issued a terse reply on the matter, saying that it has no role in the issuance of ID cards but that it was ready to cooperate with any investigations should this be required.
The Labour Party has dismissed the allegations as fantasy while the Nationalist Party is calling for an investigation into the matter.
The whistleblower has said that he wishes to testify via video conferencing in the criminal case against the three Transport Malta officials accused of corruption.
The man claims that he was forced out of Malta in 2021 when his residence permit was revoked in retaliation for him trying to raise the alarm about the driving licence racket to the Labour Party.
Identity Malta maintains that his residency was revoked as he had failed to adhere to application deadlines.