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NEWS 5 maltatoday | TUESDAY • 22 MARCH 2022 PN could refer matter to Constitutional Court CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 However, it transpired that at least one inmate, Daren Debono, known as it-Topo, was allowed to vote despite having an interdiction and serving a 10-and-a-half-year prison term. The law says that prisoners who have been condemned to a jail term of more than 12 months lose their right to vote. Other legal provisions such as a court-imposed interdiction can also deny a person the right to vote. Piccinino noted that every month the Court Registrar is obliged to inform the Electoral Commission of those persons who are condemned to more than 12 months in prison. "It is clear that there are seri- ous shortcomings on the part of the Electoral Commission and the Court Registrar that were prejudicial to the elector- al process that took place at the CCF on Saturday 19 March and which led to it being vitiated," Piccinino wrote. The PN said the voting pro- cess that took place on Saturday at the CCF should be annulled and repeated after the Elector- al Commission adjourns its list of eligible voters by excluding those barred from voting. Piccinino said the commission should treat the PN's request with urgency and the party re- served the right to refer the matter to the constitutional court. Earlier, PN leader Bernard Grech said the party reserved the right to take any action to ensure the electoral process was free and fair. The election campaign is in its final lap before people go to the polls on Saturday 26 March. The Commission has insin- stedthat Malta's registry of el- igible voters was "substantially correct", and that it relies on various sources to keep the registry up to date. The Com- mission cannot remove a voter from the registry, or add new voters, if the strict requirements and procedures set out in the Electoral law are not followed. Public servants are obliged to provide the Commission with any information requested to determine whether someone can vote. The Commission has said it always acted according to such reports from public servants. 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. 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 election were allowed to vote." ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt PN secretary-general Michael Piccinino wants Electoral Commission to cancel prison voting after 'tens' of inmates barred from voting were allowed to vote Peppi Azzopardi complains of dementia-suffering mother taken to vote MATTHEW VELLA THE TV host Peppi Azzopardi has complained that his elderly mother, a dementia sufferer, had been taken to a polling booth to vote during the week's early voting for the 2022 general elec- tions. Azzopardi, the former Xara- bank host, said his mother, a St Vincent de Paule patient, suf- fered from dementia and could not even recognise her own son. "In almost every matter concerning her, we are always informed about the tiniest of things, as it should be. Yesterday she was taking out of her ward to vote, without the family's con- sent. How could they have done this without us being informed? Can I know what's going on?" Azzopardi's post attracted a flurry of similar cases, showing once again a glaring problem in the way elderly patients who are still entitled to a voting doc- ument tend to be escorted en masse out of their wards to case a ballot. The Electoral Commission allows families to request the interdiction of incapacitated relatives, to strike them off the electoral register. But in cases where patients are still issued a voting document, hospital staff are obliged by the Electoral Commission to allow patients their democratic right to vote. The voting documents are not held by patients, but collected by the hospital a day earlier from the Electoral Commission. They are handed to the patients be- fore voting. One SVDP staff member who read Azzopardi's post on Face- book said he was present in the hospital wards during the early voting. "I can tell you that the staff there has worked during previous general elections are people who know their job well, and certainly there was no form of pressure on people to vote. But you cannot deny people their right to vote. Rest assured that she was in good hands." The staff member insisted that without a court application for her incapacitation, any SVDP patient would have had their voting document issued, enti- tling them to the right to vote. But he said that a dementia sufferer would not have been allowed to vote anyway. "The Assistant Electoral Commission would have determined that a person incapable of communi- cating properly should not be al- lowed to vote. I was one of these AECs and I know how the sys- tem works." Peppi Azzopardi Bernard Grech says the PN's eyes are on the Electoral Commission to ensure the electoral process is free and fair after some prisoners with no right to vote were still issued with a voting document

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