The Nationalist Party has won all 99 cases it brought related to what has been described a voter fraud in Siggiewi, justice spokesman Karol Aquilina said on Facebook on Friday.

The cases were heard by 22 magistrates in the last three weeks.

Aquilina said that all the persons who were illegally and abusively registered to be living in a Siggiewi block which is still uninhabitable will have their address reversed to their previous place of residence.

In submitting its cases in court, the PN had 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, Nationalist Party secretary general Michael Piccinino had said this is the perfect example of how government uses housing and other resources to manipulate local council elections.

In 2019, Labour had won a majority in the Siġġiewi local council for the first time since local elections started being held with a mere 70-vote advantage.

“We have caught labour gerrymandering in Siġġiewi,” Piccinino had 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.”

Prime Minister Robert Abela had defended Social Housing Minister Roderick Galdes in the wake of the Siġġiewi voter fraud, and blamed the Nationalist Party for inflicting this “martyrdom” onto the affected families. The PN had countered that the only person responsible was PM Abela.

Last week, a magistrate ordered the police to investigate and identify the public officials and entities who had manipulated voters into changing their address to a Siġġiewi construction site ahead of the upcoming local council and EU elections.

All the witnesses who testified in the court cases instituted by the Nationalist Party said that they do not live in Siggiewi.

Nationalist Party says that Labour Party tried to steal Siggiewi local council through voter fraud

The situation which resulted in 22 different magistrates looking over 99 cases related to voter fraud was not simply a case of someone transferring their ID card to another property they have, PN Secretary General Michael Piccinino said during a press conference in Siggiewi later on Friday, but rather it was a case where voters were manipulated into changing their ID cards despite having no interest in doing so as they were not yet residing in their Siggiewi residence.

He said that the court has ordered an investigation to find out who were the government officials which facilitated this manipulation of voters. He continued that the Labour government manipulated these voters through Roderick Galdes’ Ministry in order to win the Siggiewi local council through fraud.

Piccinino said that the Nationalist Party is being careful to make sure that the election process is just, clean, and transparent. He continued that the PN opened these cases to ensure that the electoral registry is one which reflects reality. He added that everything which the government has done in this situation deserves to be condemned, and that the PL tried to steal the Siggiewi local council.

Ivan Bartolo, the PN Spokesperson for Social Accommodation, began by saying that the PN has never been against the social housing project in Siggiewi. He said that the PN has always talked about housing of quality, and that it is happy whenever new social housing is established.

With that said, Bartolo remarked that the PN has long been speaking about the situation which has unravelled now. “I am not proud that my country has fallen short for its society … I am proud that nothing remains in the dark … I have seen this, vulnerable people would come to us and say that the PL was benefitting off of them and using them as a stepladder to gain votes and discard them.”

He said that just prior to the 2022 general election, during the first week of March, people had gone to the Housing Authority to sign a contract, and have been waiting for over two years since then. He said that today nothing remains in the dark, and that the moment has now arrived so that those vulnerable people are factually proven that they were suffering for months while the PL was benefitting off them.

He referenced the case of a woman with cancer who he said spent two years suffering and not receiving that which she signed for two years ago. “We are talking about individuals who are truly vulnerable,” he commented, adding that this also encompasses individuals who are victims of domestic violence.

Bartolo said that the PN tries to help people from any party, which he said is contrary to what Minister Galdes does, despite Galdes saying that his Ministry assists both PL and PN supporters.

For his part, the PN spokesperson concluded by saying that he now awaits another attack on the court for doing its duty, and remarked that it will likely be accused of coordinating the timing of these decisions. “But I ask, then, what are the people who coordinate the timing of these voter schemes a week ahead of an election? Are they not playing with the timing in this case?”

Piccinino concluded the conference by saying that the court has once again confirmed fraud being enacted by the PL, and added that what occurred is certainly not acceptable. He also said that the voters who were manipulated will be able to vote normally, in the locality where they would have voted prior to this situation.