The Nationalist Party on Friday accused the Labour Party of registering nearly 100 voters as residents at a housing complex in Siġġiewi which is still in shell form. The residents who were registered do not live in this government estate, the PN said.
Addressing a press conference outside the Valletta law courts on Friday, Nationalist Party secretary general Michael Piccinino said this is the perfect example of how government uses housing and other resources to manipulate local council elections.
The party filed 99 court applications to request the reversal of registrations for the voters in question.
In 2019, Labour had won Siġġiewi for the first time since local elections started being held with a mere 70-vote advantage.
“We have caught labour gerrymandering in Siġġiewi,” Piccinino said, explaining that as of last month, nobody had been registered as living at the housing project in question. “The moment the President signed off on the election, suddenly 99 people were registered as living there.”
PN representatives visited the apartment block on Thursday, finding it to be still under construction, empty and unfinished. Most of the units had no front door and no electricity or water services were connected, Piccinino added.
Two thirds of the individuals registered as residing at the site were from Qormi, which is the district contested by housing minister Roderick Galdes.
He stressed that the PN’s request was not for voters to be struck off the electoral register altogether, but that they be returned to their district. “Abuse is not acceptable,” he said.
