PN loses court case to redo prison voting

Mar 23 2022

The Nationalist Party lost the court case demanding that there be a re-run of the early voting held at the prison on Saturday. The Constitutional Court cited a lack of jurisdiction after the PN claimed irregularities.

The Opposition had argued that prisoners sentenced to imprisonment for more than a year had been allowed to vote, despite this being a violation of electoral law.

Arguing through its lawyer Ian Refalo, the Electoral Commission said that if the PN’s request was to be upheld the commission would not be able to wrap up the election process.

‘This is the first time they are trying to stop the electoral process’ said Refalo. He insisted that the party could have filed an application at the appropriate time to have those voters struck off the register.

Whenever the updated registered is published, there is a 14 day time window within which corrections are allowed. On the other hand, PN lawyer Paul Borg Olivier argued that the intention by the PN was not to block or delay the general election but to have a revision of the early voting.

Olivier was assisting PN general secretary Michael Piccinino. If the updated list of ineligible voters was not communicated to the Electoral commission by the court registrar, the commission had a duty to correct the information.

The commission’s lawyer insisted that once the register was published, the information was deemed true. Thus, the commission could not touch the register, making a re-run apply to the same voters.

The PN’s lawyer said that the commission’s lawyer was adopting a restrictive interpretation of law. Chief Justice dismissed the PN request and declared that the court lacked jurisdiction to decide upon the matter. The court also revoked an injunction which it had upheld provisionally.

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End ban on blood donations from gay men says ADPD

Mar 23 2022

Third political party ADPD has called to put an end on the ban on blood donations from gay men as part of its electoral manifesto.

ADPD candidate Mina Tolu said that ‘as a non-binary trans person who is accessing trans specific healthcare through the Gender Wellbeing Clinic, I know as well as other trans people in Malta how long the waiting lists are.’

The candidate said that the party would increase funding to this clinic, decrease waiting times and allow more inclusive access to the vital service. Apart from this, the ban on blood donations from gay men would be abolished as it is based on misinformation and discrimination.

Carmel Cacopardo, the ADPD chairperson, spoke out against hatred, especially that which seeks to dehumanise and silence individuals and their identities.

‘Unfortunately also in Malta we can observe the rising trend of hatred from far-right groups in society. Homophobia, transphobia, racism xenophobia and sexism can and are being used by some politicians to dehumanise individuals in our society. Including during this general election campaign. We cannot accept this.’

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Traffic due to collisions because of delayed magisterial inquiries says Abela

Mar 23 2022

Prime Minister Robert Abela blamed the recent traffic problems on delays in onsite investigations by magistrates following crashes. When asked about the island’s traffic, Abela said he could not comment on Wednesday’s traffic jam as he did not know what caused the jam.

However, he said that other similar incidents in recent weeks were caused by judicial delays. Abela said that during the two previous incidents, accidents were happening at a particular time and the magisterial inquiries were starting hours later.

Abela clarified that he was not criticising magistrates or their decisions to appoint experts for inquiries as that is in their discretion. However we should understand the requirements of the public said the PM.

‘While these inquiries and their findings need to happen, we cannot allow a number of hours to pass for them to get underway.’

This follows traffic incidents which resulted in massive road gridlocks. One on March 14 saw debris from a crash on Regional Road taking hours to be removed. Another incident on February 16th saw a similar standstill.

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Dementia patients are fit to vote says Active Ageing minister

Mar 23 2022

Following concerns raised by families, Active Ageing Minister Michael Farrugia said that psychiatrists and electoral commission officials assessed dementia patients on their capability to vote in recent weeks.

Farrugia was responding to reports by relatives that dementia residents at St Vincent de Paul Residence were taken to vote early on Saturday without families being informed.

Times of Malta was informed by the Minister who said that the vote belongs to the person and neither their relatives nor staff members can stop them from voting once they are certified as being fit.’

Once the final decision was made by the Electoral Commission and psychiatrists, the minister said the decision should be respected. ‘Having a diagnosis of dementia does not automatically mean a person is not fit to vote.

This follows journalist Peppi Azzopardi sharing a complaint on Sunday saying that, despite having dementia, hits mother was taken out of her ward in St Vincent de Paul and the family was not informed.

According to the Maltese constitution, no person is qualified to be registered as a voter if he or she is determined by a court or otherwise to be of unsound mind. The General Elections Act outlines a procedure that needs to be followed by family members or carers to cancel a voter from the electoral register.

The decision to strike a person off the register must be unanimously agreed by the Electoral Board. Despite this, little can be done to revoke a voting document on grounds of lack of mental capacity once it has been issued.

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