The right to vote
The prime minister said yesterday in parliament that those who buy Maltese passports will be allowed to vote in Maltese general elections.
He cited the Attorney-General in this regard, specifically the line where the AG wrote that that those who acquire citizenship through purchase cannot be treated differently to other citizens.
This is thoroughly disingenuous. It should be obvious to anyone with half a rational brain that there can be no tiers or classes of citizenship (hence ‘second-class citizen’). A citizen is a citizen is a citizen and is not the same thing as a resident.
But here’s the thing. Just as residents of Malta need not be citizens of Malta, so citizens of Malta need not be residents of Malta. That is why Australia, Canada, the United States and Britain have thousands of citizens who are also Maltese citizens, but who live there and not in Malta.
They don’t vote in Maltese elections. They don’t have the right to vote because their lives are elsewhere and have always been.
The prime minister was keen to underscore the AG’s advice that the secret individuals who buy their citizenship should be treated like all other citizens.
Well, legally, logically and rationally that means that unless they are registered in Malta and have the required ties to the country on which all other citizens are assessed for the right to vote, they do not have that right.
The sons and daughters of Maltese emigrants, living in Detroit, hold Maltese citizenship as well as American, but they do not have the right to vote in Maltese elections even if they were bothered to do so.
Similarly, those who buy Maltese passports will not have the right to vote unless they actually build a proper base here.
On paper and in theory, there should be no worries about the Labour Party buying votes (or getting paid for them), but the problems is that these are people who really can’t be trusted and who have no moral or ethical brakes on them.
So you can see what is coming next. Those who buy passports will go straight onto the electoral roll. It will then be up to the Nationalist Party to find them and challenge them in court. When and if they do so, they will be accused of being undemocratic and negative, targetting individuals.
But there is a more obvious problem – how do you identify, on the electoral roll, those who have bought their passports from those who did not, who were regularly naturalised?
But in any case, this is not the main problem – that main problem would the secrecy. Most of those who buy their passports will not want the vote because it means being listed on the electoral roll, which would defeat their purpose. Unless the government is also planning on giving them new identities along with their new passport, I can’t see yet how it plans to work its way round that. It will no doubt find a way if it considers this to be to its advantage.
25 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Now, let’s reason this out. If they obtained their right to citizenship through the Labour government, whilst the Nationalists are claiming that if they are in power they will withdraw the citizenships granted. Doesn’t this mean that the Labour Party are effectively buying votes since the new citizens will want the Labour Government to remain in power in order not to have their citizenship withdrawn? In other words, Labour are guaranteeing they will remain in power for years to come.
[Daphne – Oh I doubt it. Voting Labour is not going to be high on their priority list. Nor is voting at all.]
This thing is starting to fester.
And inevitably:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/malta/10445966/Malta-offers-EU-citizenship-to-anyone-with-650000-euros.html
Perfect just as the opposition hinted that they would reverse this legislation on a retrospective basis Joseph is going to guarantee himself votes for the forthcoming elections.
The irony is that most rich people would vote PN.
[Daphne – Actually they voted Labour en masse this time, because Labour promised them they could get richer, as long as they also made Labour rich.]
“How do you identify, on the electoral roll, those who have bought their passports from those who did not, who were regularly naturalised?”
That would be the simplest of matters. Just compare the new additions to the Electoral Register with the Government Gazette’s list of new citizens and find those who don’t show up. Though if people buying passports end up on the electoral register there’s no secrecy to speak of, so I don’t see how that will happen.
[Daphne – No, you are wrong. The new ban on publication is blanket, and includes also naturalised citizens. They did this because the government couldn’t discriminate and ban publication of the names of ‘bought’ citizenships and not the others. So you literally will not have any way of knowing who ‘became’ a citizen and then, whether they became one by naturalisation or through purchasing it.]
And how, pray, would they be registered? Which address? All c/o Auberge de Castille, Castille Place, Valletta?
This has already been a Financial Services side business for years.
Voters have their address and ID card number against their names on the electoral register.
So apart from a passport these ‘unknown’ persons would also be required to have an ID card and an address in Malta.
So a person born and brought up in Malta and who’s left the country can’t vote, but these *ankers can?
Has sanity deleted itself from the Maltese lexicon?
Daphne, I think that the way around this is going to be easy.
The government will introduce a bill in parliament which will give all Maltese who live abroad (subject to any other restrictions it likes) the right to vote. Surely the PN cannot vote against such a law, otherwise they will be negative and jealous.
Therefore, the PN would not need to check the electoral rolls for residents and non-residents.
Secrecy next. Reduce bureaucracy by at least 25%. Hence, simplify the rules so that all, and only, those who present a valid Maltese passport or ID card at the polling booth will vote.
At this point, do away with the electoral roll, or restrict access to it only to one’s personal information on one’s personal request.
Moreover, since now Labour can secure power, there can be as much corrupt practices as they like, because they plan to stay in power.
If, according to the prime minister, all those secret individuals who buy Maltese passports will be allowed to vote in Maltese general elections, it means that:
right to vote = electoral register = no secret at all
The Prime Minister understands the issue from a completely different point of view.
The secret individuals who buy Maltese passports have a right to vote without being listed on the electoral register. The government will just quote the number of these individuals, and he will give each one of them a vote by proxy.
The temptation to include fictitious individuals on that secret list is of course enormous. That secret list is known only to Joseph Muscat, Manuel Mallia and Henley & Partners. I doubt whether the monitoring committee will ever be given access to that list once the opposition has declared that it will make it public.
It means electronic voting and even less control over who votes.
If they can’t even correct an electricity bill in 18 months, do you think they’re going to bother with the nicety of corrections to the electoral register?
Does the removal of the residency requirement require a two thirds vote in parliament, or a simple majority?
Imagine the floods of new votes for Labour if the residency requirement is lifted, and an expat voting system is introduced.
The residency requirement can be lifted by Labour calling the PN negative and jealous if they do not allow it. Easy.
And in practice, will it do any good to the PN if it takes the position against the granting of the voting rights to Maltese citizens living abroad?
Once again, I draw the attention to this paragraph in the Labour manifesto:
Page 173
“Maltin li jghixu barra
“Naggornaw il-ligi elettorali biex il-Maltin li jghixu barra u li huma eligibbli ghall-vot ikunu jistghu jivvutaw f’dawk il-pajjizi minghajr ma jigu Malta biex jaghmlu dan.”
– Chapter 20, promise number 23.
Can you detect an apparent contradiction between the following parts of the above sentence: “il-Maltin li jghixu barra” and “u li huma eligibbli ghall-vot”?
Based on existing rules, Maltese who live abroad are not eligible to vote.
But this electoral promise proposes to change that. And they will vote in their country of residence.
Great. I left Malta about 10 years ago, but I visit a couple of times a year. All my family is in Malta and I also have property and bank accounts there. So I do have a vested interest apart from being a Maltese citizen myself.
And now it looks like anybody buying a passport regardless of their residency and interest in Malta may vote while I may not.
If this comes to pass, I would seriously consider taking legal action against the government although it would probably be a useless and expensive exercise.
Muscat is a con man.
[Daphne – It would not be a useless exercise. It is a cast-iron discrimination case. If that comes to pass, the Nationalist Party will no doubt be fighting cases and advising people. After all, they have one of the best human rights lawyers on board – Dr Comodini Cachia.]
Does this mean that these people will have a right to vote without appearing on the electoral register, if their names are going to be kept secret? And secret from whom? Who will actually have access to these names?
[Daphne – No, you can’t vote unless you’re on the electoral roll. That’s why it’s called the electoral roll/register: it’s the full list of electors.]
Will their names be on the electoral register. I thought that one has to be residing in Malta to have the right to vote ?
I can see this headline in our newspapers in 5 years time on the sale of Maltese citizenships!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2504398/A-spectacular-mistake-immigration-Straw-finally-admits-Labour-messed-letting-million-East-Europeans.html
Yes, but they also have the right to access the education and health system too, and guess what , the tax payer will foot the bill
Does anyone know if the people buying citizenship must do so under their own name or whether they can make up a name for their Maltese passport?
Great, Labour have just gotten a few more thousand votes.
All those who buy their Maltese citizenship will automatically gain free access to schools, university, hospital. I think that when you start deducting the commissions and benefits very little will remain of those 650K.
The way already exists. The publication of the electoral register is the only permissible publication that does not violate the Data Protection Act. However, since both major political parties have a vested interest, the Commissioner of Data Protection can only raise concern, but cannot act upon.