Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1462138
9 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 21 MARCH 2022 PN collects €1,428,680 in election fund-raiser KARL AZZOPARDI THE Nationalist Party col- lected €1,428,680 during its election campaign fund-rais- ing marathons. The fund raisers were held throughout the four weeks of the election campaign, with €887,450 collected over the weekend. Speaking during the mara- thon, Nationalist leader Ber- nard Grech thanked media. link communications work- ers and party volunteers for their help in delivering the party's vision. Secretary general Michael Piccinino, deputy leaders Robert Arrigo and David Agius and party candidates also delivered their messages during the marathon. Veteran NET journalist and former councillor Louise Tedesco, who had resigned from her posts after Grech replaced Adrian Delia at the party's helm in 2020, also made a special appearance, urging people to vote for the PN. Electoral register 'substantially correct' despite heist convict's name in list NICOLE MEILAK MALTA'S registry of eligible voters is "substantially correct", the Electoral Commission said in response to allegations that interdicted prisoners had been allowed to vote on Saturday. The databse used for the gen- eral election was published in February 2022, with the Com- mission maintaining that its database was "substantially" correct. The Commission was reacted to press reports said that Daren Debono 'it-Topo', the HSBC heist convict, wasstill registered as a voter on the first district. Debono was sentenced on 6 January, over a month before the closing date for the register. "The Electoral Commission relies on various sources to keep the registry up to date, and can- not remove a voter from the registry, or add new voters, if the strict requirements and pro- cedures set out in the Electoral Law are not followed," it said. Public servants are obliged to provide the Commission with any information requested to determine whether someone can vote. The Commission said it always acted according to such reports from public serv- ants. Indeed, the Court Registrar and Courts of Gozo are legally obliged to provide a list of peo- ple who are either interdicted for reasons of mental incapacity or who are serving a prison sen- tence exceeding 12 months. The Electoral Commission said that it cannot stop any- one from voting if their name appears in the Electoral Regis- ter, but it does not mean that a person has a right to vote when they do not qualify to do so. Nationalist MP Jason Azzo- pardi first claimed that prison- ers subject to five, seven and 10-year prison sentences had been allowed to vote during Sat- urday's early voting session. He also said that prisoners known to have Nationalist sym- pathies but having the same sort of prison sentences, were not given their voting document by the Electoral Commission. The Electoral Commission re- butted this, explaining that the register was based on reports from public officials without any distinction on political alle- giance. In a reaction, the Nationalist Party said that Justice Minis- ter Edward Zammit Lewis, and those appointed by him, must come forward and answer for these accusations. "It is not a fact that people who never had a right to vote in this general elec- tion were allowed to vote." Daren Debono 'it-Topo'