Today, Arnold Cassola, Victor Galea and I met with Julian Vassallo, EU Parliament office director in Valletta, regarding the discrimination against EU residents in Malta.
Probably without even realising it, the Electoral Office in valletta is discriminating against EU residents in Malta by not accepting to register EU citizens in the electoral register for the forthcoming European Parliament elections while Maltese citizens resident in Malta can register any day for this electoral register. This is a blatant act of discrimination sicne Maltese and EU residents have the same rights as regards voter registration for the European Elections.
Dr. Julian Vassallo took its concern very seriously since the European Parliament and its Offices in member states have every interest in ensuring that no obstacles are placed before EU citizens wishing to exercise their right to vote in European Elections.
He stated that consultations with the Electoral Commision on this issue are on-going and that he believed that if the necessary human and other resources are put into place there was still enough time for all non-Maltese residents wishing to be registered to vote in the June 2009 European Elections to do so.
Dr. Vassallo insisted that parallel to ensuring that the legal and practical arrangements in place the Valletta European Parliament Office will be embarking on a “bring out the vote” information campaign which will also target non-Maltese residents. A multilingual helpline for the EP Elections is also planned. Meanwhile any inquiries from the public can already be addressed to the EP Valletta Office ([email protected] or Tel 21 235075).
