The April 2014 European Union electoral register (European Parliament electoral register) – which purports to list only those (‘A’) non-Maltese EU citizens enrolled up until Saturday, 29th March, 2014 inclusive – discloses that a total 8,288 persons were registered to vote in the European Parliament elections in Malta on 24th May.

The lower total number of registered non-Maltese EU electors that you and the media have quoted, that is, 7,880, may be accounted for because scores of (‘M’) electors appear in the same April 2014 European Union electoral register.

Of note is that these same (‘M’) electors appear in the Maltese Nationals section of the April 2014 Local Council electoral registers.

2012:

During the door-to-door voting document delivery process in the March 2012 round of local council elections in Malta and Gozo, the Maltese authorities managed to hand over voting documents to 80% of Maltese electors, but delivered voting documents to only 20% of registered non-Maltese EU electors:

A) ‘A quarter of the voting documents for the (2012) March local elections were undelivered after the door-to-door delivery campaign ended last week, with the major parties admitting this was higher than in previous years.

With 51,453 undelivered voting documents, amounting to 27 per cent of eligible voters, officials from both parties told The Times yesterday that when compared to previous local elections, the number was “substantially higher”.

According to the October electoral register, on which the March elections will be based, there are 192,257 eligible voters in the 35 localities, including foreigners who are entitled to vote. ………’

Source: The Times of Malta, Tuesday, 21st February, 2012: 51,000 voting documents for council elections undelivered

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120221/local/1-000-voting-documents-for-council-elections-undelivered.407780

B) ‘More than 33,000 votes out of 192,000 issued for tomorrow’s local elections in 35 localities have not been collected.

Half of the uncollected votes belong to EU citizens resident in Malta.

The EU citizens resident here numbered 21,400. A total 17,000 of them did not collect their vote……. ‘

Source: The Times of Malta, Friday, 9th March, 2012: More than 33,000 votes uncollected

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120309/local/more-than-33-000-votes-uncollected.410377

2013:

With a total of 189,188 registered electors, the door-to-door delivery of voting documents during the 9th March, 2013 round of local council elections in Malta and Gozo disclosed yet another huge disparity in the same regard.

‘…………Saturday will also see local council elections taking place in half of Malta’s localities. Here, some 18,300 voting documents remained undelivered yesterday.

However, one has to consider that around 14,000 of these voters are estimated to be non-Maltese residents……’

Source: The Times of Malta: Thursday, 7th March, 2013: Uncollected votes at the same level as 2008

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130307/local/Uncollected-votes-at-the-same-level-as-2008.460576

2014:

No such break down of voting document DELIVERY rates between Maltese National electors / Non-Maltese EU electors appeared in the media prior to the 2014 European Parliament election.

In conclusion, please see:

Letter published in the Times of Malta, Friday, March 16th, 2012:

Anne Jagla, Qawra

Local councils in the spotlight (5)

I was interested to read the comment (March 12) that “the political parties were yesterday left trying to understand what kept voters away from the polling booths”.

I can tell them! It was quite simple. We couldn’t get any voting papers.

For the past few weeks we have been inundated with information about the various candidates running in the election.

Having made our choice we then set about trying to find voting papers.

We enquired at the local police station in Qawra but two officers there told us they had no idea where we could collect them from but that there would be an announcement in the press.

We waited – and waited – and then finally saw a notice last week telling us that the very next day was the final day for collecting voting papers from Valletta, which was far too late and too far away and so we were unable to vote.

Talking to other people in the area, we are by no means the only ones to have had the same problem.

Instead of writing long letters outlining their policies, the candidates would do better to ensure that the people in their locality can obtain voting papers.

In England and Germany and probably other European countries it is unheard of for people to have to go and collect their voting papers.

These papers or cards are always delivered to the door by post and are then taken to the polling booths by the voters, where their details are matched to the list of people in that area eligible to vote.

I am not in the least bit surprised that so many people quite frankly could not be bothered to trail across the island to collect their voting papers.

Dear political parties, once you start delivering voting papers to the door, I am sure you will find an immediate increase in the voter turnout.

Source: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120316/letters/Local-councils-in-the-spotlight-5-.411339

‘………Figures from the Electoral Commission indicate that there are currently 44,729 non-Maltese EU nationals whose name appears in the Maltese electoral register………’

[Daphne – Francis Saliba was the Police Corps medical officer for many, many years. Rest assured that he can recognize a policeman when he sees one.]

This thing about house calls is total bollocks!

How many households can a candidate visit per day in a week?

Say they visit every other day and spend three or four hours per day. Spending an average 10 minutes per visit only about 80 households per week can be managed.

I’d say 50 realistically.

Candidates organize various activities peaking during campaigns and most of them give several addresses where the can be contacted. So, do we really need to wait for the candidate to come to us?

Obviously the sick and elderly are exceptions. Anyone else who needs to air views or ask a political party to tackle an issue should approach the latter themselves and not vice versa.

One could approach any party for the matter. Then one can make proper assessment at a later stage according to the steps taken by each party towards the issues concerned.

Some do consider house visits as intrusive especially if the candidate does not represent the preferred party.

Are we not the same population who used to smirk at candidates who came knocking at the door at election time and then disappear for the next four years after an election?

I served as an assistant electoral commissioner in last Saturday’s election and apart from the list of persons entitled to vote (known as the LOPEV) we were also presented with a separate list of non-Maltese EU citizens who were entitled to vote.

In my case there were 16, out of whom only 3 turned up to vote.

In Gozo they held a meeting specifically for non-Maltese electors and, I presume, the party would have organised a similar event on the mainland. The PL, on the other hand, just ignored this group.