Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/697149
7 with a list containing the name, sur- name and ID number of any person granted citizenship within the first five days of each month. The Electoral Commission is al- ready in hot water for having ac- cepted applications for the issuing of voting documents to natural- ised citizens who acquired their passport through the IIP: most of these applicants have never spent six months resident in Malta, as required by the electoral law. That automatically excludes them from having a voting document. The Maltese courts rebuked the Commission for rendering consti- tutional requisites "useless" when it disregarded any verification of the applications by IIP citizens to vote. In the first decision a court has taken on one of 91 disputed IIP beneficiaries who were placed on the electoral register, the court re- voked the right of Aleksandr Olego- vich Zaikin to vote. The PN has filed 91 cases against the Electoral Commission, in order to delete new citizens who acquired their passports under the IIP. The PN discovered that the individuals were added to the electoral register without having spent a minimum of six months in Malta over the past 18 months before the publication of the register. The Electoral Commission failed to verify whether they even satisfy residence requirements to be able to vote. Physical presence not required The Regulator of the Individual Investor Programme had con- firmed in 2015 in his report that apart from the €650,000 contribu- tion, a property lease or purchase agreement were enough to prove an applicant's residency in Malta. This also means that physical presence is not even required to prove residency, which at the very least should be the 182 days appli- cable for taxation purposes. After Identity Malta sought the advice of Professor Dimitry Koche- nov – who holds a Chair of EU Constitutional Law at the Depart- ment of European and Economic Law at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands – the Office of the Regulator concluded that IIP applicants could prove their residency by other means, and the physical presence or otherwise of the applicant should no longer be an issue. According to Kochenov, resi- dence in a EU Member State is a legal status and it therefore does not carry the same meaning as presence. "Being a legal status, residence comes with rights and obligations and the conditions of its com- mencement and termination de- pend on the rules in force and not on the presence of a particular in- dividual within that territory," the Professor had told Identity Malta. European practice, the report said, does not connect the posses- sion of the address with a strict requirement of presence on that address, let alone checks of such presence. As it is possible to hold a residence permit in more than one country, it is therefore a physical impossibility for an individual to be omnipresent in all countries in which a residence permit is held. The expert advice also contended that European law on residence has moved legal residence further away from the concept of physical pres- ence. "It may also be argued that a 'constant physical presence' could impose an unjustifiable restriction to freedom of movement," the re- port added. Grima concluded that if, the un- derlying principle that residence does not equate to physical pres- ence is correct, this should dispel the concerns being raised on the issue. In 2014, eight properties were pur- chased at a total cost of €6,292,244 implying an average property value of €786,530 – over double the mini- mum value of property that has to be acquired by successful IIP appli- cants (€350,000). Annual leases were registered with a total lease value of €4,292,583 implying an average annual lease of €119,238, well above the minimum annual lease requirement stipu- lated in the regulations and which amounts to €16,000. Total investments amounted to €6,613,332 which works out to the statutory €150,000 stipulated in the Regulations. maltatoday, SUNDAY, 26 JUNE 2016 News buying €350,000 property Be informed about the proper use of Health Centre Services Your health centre is also there for minor emergencies. This may require that you kindly wait while we deliver urgent care. Many health centre services are appointment-based. Please be punctual and kindly inform us if you are unable to attend. Please show an I.D. card when making use of health centre services – help us to ensure that your data is always protected. Bringing health closer to you Mansions in Ta' is the address of multi-millionaire Erbey, of mortgage Ocwen Financial Chambray in Gozo: fitting property for the IIP buy Maltese for €650,000 Some IIP families have been registered as living here on Depiro Street in Sliema at Belmonte Heights and Depiro Point Many of the IIP millionaires have chosen Tigné Point and Fort Cambridge as their registered address