From Ms C. Sullivan

I cannot help feeling very irate with the Maltese Electoral Commission over the fact that, as a non-Maltese EU citizen previously registered on the European Union Electoral Register, my name, and it seems the names of some 900 others like me, has been unjustly removed from the same Register. By what authority can anyone decide to arbitrarily remove a person’s name from the electoral register without first clarifying with that person what his / her position is vis-à-vis such an action?

I know for a fact that no such clarifications were carried out.

In the meantime, I have been told that non-Maltese EU citizens, previously registered on the European Union Electoral Register, have until 8 May to lodge an appeal against the Maltese Electoral Commission by going in person to the Electoral Commission in Valletta and filling out a form. Non-Maltese EU citizens will then need to present this form to the Law Courts registry to start a whole legal process in order to be included in the Electoral Register. And if that weren’t enough already, non-Maltese EU citizens may even be asked to appear in Court!

I am tired of Maltese bureaucracy! I question why non-Maltese EU citizens are treated like second-class citizens. I question why it is so hard for the Maltese Electoral Commission to simply reinstate all EU citizens whose names had been illegally removed from the register. I question why these 900 or so non-Maltese EU citizens have to now beg to be allowed to exercise their right to vote in the forthcoming European Parliament elections.

I find this attitude totally unacceptable!

Christiane Sullivan