PN To Take Malta’s Controversial Prison Voting Case Before The Courts
The Nationalist Party will be filing an injunction before the courts following the decision taken by the Electoral Commission not to accept their request to nullify the vote held at Corradino Correctional Facility (CCF).
In the application, the PN will be asking the court to order the opening of sealed packages revealing the list of persons in CCF entitled to vote, as well as packages containing the voting documents of those who voted.
The Party will also ask the court to order the Electoral Commission and the Registrars of Maltese and Gozitan courts to submit a list of persons whose names appear on the list of voters (LOPEV) and those who are disqualified from voting; and to submit the lists forwarded by the registrars to the courts to the Electoral Commission.
The PN will also move to request that the court declare that the Chief Electoral Commissioner and the Electoral Commission have failed in their obligations and that they failed to ensure that the information is received from the registrars of Maltese and Gozitan courts in accordance with the obligation.
In the injunction, the PN is also demanding that the court prohibit the ballot box to be opened before the decision of the same court.
After the call was issued, PN General Secretary Michael Piccinino had this to say:
“The biggest priority in our country is that we safeguard the electoral process in its entirety,” he said, calling for the vote to be annulled.
The PN’s actions also spurred words from PN MP Jason Azzopardi:
“I feel honoured to have fulfilled my duty,” he said. “Proof has given me a reason. There were tens of persons in prison who voted without having the right to do so.”
The decision to allow interdicted inmates in Malta’s prison, including Darren It-Topo Debono, to vote in the general election had immediately raised alarm bells among the PN, which had demanded that the whole process inside Corradino be scrapped.
Piccinino has since filed a complaint with the Electoral Commission after “tens” of interdicted inmates had voted.
Interdiction refers to being legally disqualified from voting and is given to certain inmates who committed particular offences.
The inmates voted on Saturday in an early vote that has already courted controversy because of the decision to make dementia patients vote without the consent of family members or guardians.
Do you think the vote should be voided?