Opinion: Election fraud

Almost one hundred voters suddenly appeared on the electoral register as living at Triq l-Imdina, Siġġiewi.  Not a single voter was registered at that address until 31 March.

By 20 April, 99 voters were ostensibly living there. The problem was that there was no water or electricity supply, and the project was still being completed. Nobody lived there.

Those 99 voters lived elsewhere – Qormi, Luqa, Mosta, Sta Venera, Floriana, Munxar, St Julian’s, Żebbuġ, Zurrieq, Marsaskala and Żabbar.

Yet all those voters were suddenly registered in Siġġiewi and will be voting to elect Siġġiewi’s local council.

In 2019, Labour won the Siġġiewi council for the first time ever with just 70 votes. Labour knows that council hangs in the balance – and 99 additional Labour votes may be enough to hold onto it.

More importantly, Siġġiewi falls in Housing Minister Roderick Galdes’s electoral district. Controlling Siġġiewi’s local council for the next five years would provide Galdes with a far better springboard for his own electoral prospects come the next election, just three short years away.

When the housing ministry was questioned, it clearly knew what had happened. The ministry tried to cover up the evident fraud: “Occupants are anticipated to start moving in the new social housing units within the coming days”.

The ministry admitted nobody was living there. It couldn’t deny this when the press published photos of the properties still undergoing work.

“Residents have begun the process of relocating to what will be their future homes in the community of Siġġiewi,” Galdes’ spokesperson said, again confirming those  99 voters were fraudulently listed on the electoral register as Siġġiewi residents.

Why did the ministry feel the need to cover up the fraud? Why was it trying to protect those 99 voters from prosecution?

Let’s be clear: what those voters did is criminal.  For them to register themselves as residing at Binja Silvio Parnis, Triq l-Imdina, Siġġiewi, they must have made false declarations.

Those 99 voters weren’t acting independently.  They didn’t all think about going to Identity Malta and registering themselves as residing at the social housing property they were promised before moving in.

Those 99 voters must have been coerced to do so. This was orchestrated by those who now feel obliged to leap to their defence.

Were those voters threatened that they would lose the apartment Roderick Galdes’ ministry promised them if they didn’t register?

What those 99 voters did was criminal if they made official statements to Identity Malta they knew to be false.

The government’s own website specifically states that “Maltese citizens shall change their ID card address once their residential address is changed”, and not before.

Somebody must have pushed them to engage in fraud.  We know who the usual suspects are.  We certainly know who had the motivation to get those 99 voters registered in Siġġiewi.

Media reports state the same person filled in applications for all 99 voters. No wonder Roderick Galdes is panicking.

This is the same playbook used for the severe disability benefits scam.  First, they target vulnerable individuals to engage in fraud and reassure them that committing a crime will not result in prosecution because “it’s our government”.

Promise them that even if they are caught, they’ll be protected by Labour.  Point out Labour’s presidential pardon to those who illegally received disability benefits. This scandal has Labour’s fingerprints all over it.

The PN filed court proceedings to transfer those 99 voters back to their true residential area on the electoral register.  PN General Secretary Michael Piccinino was reported as describing the situation as a “systematic misuse of government housing that is tantamount to gerrymandering”.

That isn’t misuse.  This is blatant criminal abuse of vulnerable individuals with the specific objective of influencing the outcome of an election.

This isn’t about a few individuals making false statements.  This is about a criminal organisation coercing vulnerable individuals to commit fraud to thwart the democratic process. If those involved are public officials, it’s aggravated crime.

There’s plenty of evidence to trigger a magisterial inquiry.  We know Labour’s police force won’t act.  We know Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa won’t budge.

Our democracy is under threat, and it seems the people haven’t realised or understood.  It’s not court filings to correctly register those voters that’s required.  The PN should demand a magisterial inquiry.

Labour is inching closer to its ultimate objective – that of crushing its democratic opposition and manipulating the political system to ensure it never loses power.

Chris Fearne articulated that objective best: RIPN. Labour’s dismantling of our democracy is being achieved with shocking ease.

Malta has become a bit like India, which defines itself as a democracy but increasingly looks like a one-party state where the ruling party captured the state media and completely took over the civil service and the judiciary.

Labour has hundreds, if not thousands, of ‘Persons of Trust’ running the civil service – people like Michael Falzon’s Mark Calleja ‘Gulija’ who allegedly told Roger Agius, Silvio Grixti’s canvasser, that as long as Michael Falzon remained minister “we would never have any trouble”.

Labour kept a database of 337,384 voters at its Mile End headquarters, identifying Labour voters as “1” and PN voters as “2”. Ministry officials only selected applicants for civil service posts according to their voting preference.

The company that provided that database to Labour belonged to Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi’s brother-in-law, Philip Farrugia.  His company, C-Planet IT Services, was fined €65,000 by the Information and Data Protection Commissioner for breaching data protection legislation.

Whether it’s leeching our money for direct orders, fixing phantom jobs or dishing out abusive Presidential pardons, Labour will not stop at anything to win.

Abela’s now threatening the judiciary again: “Justice is not political terrorism”. He’s keeping journalists away and refusing to answer their questions. This isn’t democracy, it’s autocracy.

Our democracy is young and fragile and won’t last long.  A demagogue like Robert Abela can easily wreck it, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.

Labour is a democratic party in name only.  It has an autocratic, authoritarian soul.

One thing is certain:  Labour will cheat.  It is cheating, and it will continue to cheat. The battle is not about policies – it’s about basic democracy.