The Momentum party has expressed "serious concern and disappointment regarding the usual and frequent technical problems" affecting parliamentary petitions posted on the official website of the Parliament of Malta.

The latest petition, which calls for urgent action on excessive noise, water abuse, vandalism, waste issuesa and other problems caused by apartments rented to tourists in residential areas, has collected around 1,500 signatures within 48 hours of its launch, "despite many reports of errors from would-be signatories," the party said.

Momentum Secretary General Mark Camilleri Gambin said: "Last March, following Momentum's report to the Ombudsman, Parliament officials acknowledged that there were technical flaws in the online petitions system that were preventing citizens from signing parliamentary petitions. These parliament officials had stated that measures were being taken to remedy the technical issues."

"In reality, we citizens continue to be deceived. It seems that nothing has been done to resolve these serious flaws in the system. In truth, it is incredibly easy to fix a simple system such as the petitions system, or even build a new one if necessary. The fact that this has not been done yet indicates an intentional obstruction to undermine the public's right to participate in democratic processes. These problems raise serious questions about transparency and accountability. It is clear that technical issues are preventing many people from signing the petition. This is unacceptable, especially when we are talking about issues that directly affect the quality of life for residents."

Momentum called on the Speaker's Office to "take immediate action to finally resolve these technical problems" and ensure that there are no further technical or administrative obstacles to public participation through the parliamentary portal.