The Malta Independent 13 February 2025, Thursday
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Updated: Collapse of ID card system: More cases of people with double voting documents, ID Cards

Sunday, 2 April 2017, 10:15 Last update: about 9 years ago

The double and triple ID Card saga revealed in detail by The Malta Independent on Sunday last week has taken a new twist, as more sources have come forward with fresh information sustaining the claims made in Parliament by PN Deputy Leader Beppe Fenech Adami who described the ID card system managed by Identity Malta as being “in total free-fall”.

New documents obtained by this newspaper show how the ‘collapse’ of the ID card system has serious repercussions on the electoral registry, with people set to obtain more than one voting document. 

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In the documents we are publishing today, this newspaper can reveal that a man residing in Sliema, who until October 2012 held the ID card number: **902A (**digits withheld to protect privacy) is no longer found on the electoral registry as of October 2014. Here starts the interesting yet mind-boggling part. A man from Swieqi, registered in the electoral registry with ID card number **920A, in October 2016 found himself with two ID cards: **920A and **902A, the latter previously held by the man from Sliema who disappeared from the registry in 2014.

It will be noted that the two ID cards currently held by the man from Swieqi are very similar, with the last two digits switched, but this goes to show the seriousness of the crisis at Identity Malta. That a person should not have more than one ID card (and voting document) is a given, but how a person gets someone else’s ID card number while retaining his own beggars belief.

The documents being published today give an indication of how serious the ID card ‘collapse’ is, but unfortunately it doesn’t give us an indication of just how big the problem is. Experts who spoke to this newsroom following last Sunday’s revelations said: “It is practically impossible for Identity Malta to establish the extent of the problem and resolve it in time for the general election.”

Following the Prime Minister’s statement last Monday, The Malta Independent on Sunday is today publishing the leaked documents from the internal exercise conducted by Identity Malta itself in its attempt to establish how many people have more than one ID card (see other story).

From a sample of 300 people, it was found that 80 have more than one ID card, 26.6 per cent of the sample.

From laborious investigations carried out by this newsroom without the tools possessed by Identity Malta at their disposal, it also transpires that a woman from Marsascala who has two ID cards has already featured on the electoral register and, if nothing is done, she will be able to vote twice in the next general election. The woman has one ID card number ending with the letter ‘P’, which is a provisional card, and another one ending with an ‘L’, which is the regular letter confirming a person residing in Malta. This particular person is registered as living in the same apartment in Marsascala. The first ID card is registered in her maiden name while the second is in her married surname. People holding a provisional (‘P’) ID card are issued with voting documents just like those with ID cards ending with an ‘A’, ‘M’ or ‘L’.

It is reasonable to expect that the ID card system at Identity Malta would have checks and balances to, firstly delete a provisional ID card issued to a person and, secondly, that it would delete an ID card once a person registers for a new one. But this did not happen and one wonders just how many cases like this are out there and to what extent is the Electoral Commission aware of the problem.

In the meantime, the Electoral Commission has not asked for clarification from Identity Malta following the revelation by this newspaper last Sunday.

For their part, both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Justice and Culture Minister Owen Bonnici have denied there is any crisis at Identity Malta, saying that “all is smooth” at the agency.

Minister Bonnici even reached out to this newsroom, offering a tour of Identity Malta. And yet, no one has denied the existence of 80 people out of a sample of 300 who possess more than one ID card.

Following today’s publication of documents, Identity Malta needs to further explain what it is doing to determine how many more cases of double and triple ID cards exist and the identity of the bearers of these double voting documents.

Government statement

The government did not deny that 80 people, from a total of 300, were in possession of more than one identity card.

In a statement, the government said that The Malta Independent on Sunday chose to keep publishing untrue stories on the ID card system, which factually is today in a much better state from a situation of expired ID cards during previous administrations.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement people holding a residence document ending with ‘A’ (‘A’ is for aliens, meaning persons who are not Maltese) are not entitled to vote in general elections in the first place. Therefore, any talk of people with a residence document ending with ‘A’ voting twice is pure invention, the ministry said.

The newspaper also mentions, the ministry said, a person who had an ID card number ending with a ‘P’. This exceptional classification - which was created by the previous administration - caters for a small list of Maltese citizens who are not able to produce a birth certificate. Usually, the reason for not being able to produce a birth certificate relates to the fact that these citizens were born in foreign jurisdictions with different systems.

Identity Malta has special internal checks with regards to this exceptional category. The case mentioned by the newspaper has in fact been duly flagged by the internal checking system of Identity Malta, and the Electoral Commission was informed immediately.

In the past days the Government has invited The Malta Independent for an information session with Identity Malta in order to give all the necessary information on how the system works and on the internal controls being obtained within the agency. The session will take place this week.

The Malta Independent on Sunday is encouraged, and will have all opportunity, to provide in full confidence all details of the mentioned allegations for the relevant authorities to investigate and to determine their veracity, the ministry said.

 

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