Electoral Commission evasive on data protection advice on elderly voters

Electoral Commissioner Salvu Gauci was evasive when asked by MaltaToday whether he will heed the advice of the Data Protection Commissioner not to collect data on patients in hospitals before the final week of the electoral campaign. 

Gauci's reply to MaltaToday's query on whether the commission will heed this advice was:

"Thank you for your interest in the matter.  Please be informed that the matter is in hand and being given its due attention."
On his part Carmel Cacopardo, AD's spokesperson for Home Affairs revealed that during the first meeting of the sub-committee for Hospitals and Retirement Homes held on Thursday 24 January 2013, he raised the matter as to whether the Electoral Commission would be following the recommendation of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner relative to the curtailment of access to data relative to patients in Hospitals and residents in Retirement Homes.

"I was informed that on the basis of legal advice received the Electoral Commission was to follow the law (General Elections Act) as the legal advice given was that election legislation supersedes data protection legislation".
Cacopardo insists that the course of action followed by the Electoral Commission is  "flawed and disrespectful towards the privacy of patients".

AD was given a first list of patients/residents of retirement homes, which on a point of principle it has refused to accept.

In his reply to AD's request to stop the collection data of hospitalisted persons, the Data Protection Commissioner has ruled that patients' data cannot be collected by the Electoral Commission before the Monday preceding the 9 March election, the Information and Data Protection Commissioner said.

Recent amendments to the General Elections Act allow parties access to patients' lists records during the entire span of the electoral campaign.