Updated | Electoral Commission to reprint ballot sheets

The Electoral Commission has decided to reprint the ballot papers for the forthcoming European Parliament elections following the withdrawal of Labour candidate Cyrus Engerer.

Sources confirmed disagreements during an urgent meeting of the Electoral Commission ensued as to whether the ballot sheets should be reprinted or not. The final vote, the Electoral Commissioner's casting vote, proved to be the deciding vote. It is estimated that at least €150,000 will be forked out for the reprint - a figure which does not cover all the costs.

Earlier

Speaking to MaltaToday, Chief Electoral Commissioner Joe Church denied that a decision had been taken not to reprint the ballopt papers, explaining “no decision has been taken by the commission yet and once we a decision is taken we will issue an official statement.”

He added that the commission was taking a cautious approach to ensure that no precedent is created. While noting that the cost and the time needed to reprint around 350,000 ballot sheets was prohibitive, he said that the commission would take a decision in the next few days.

Engerer withdrew from the European Parliament elections race after a court of appeal yesterday convicted him to a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.

With only 15 days to go, the Electoral Commission must decide whether it should go into the trouble of reprinting the ballot papers, however with the Commission members representing the two big parties it is unlikely that the Labour Party will take the risk of having a number of votes invalidated.

However, this could be circumvented if the commission issues clear guidelines over the counting process, especially in regards to voters who give a preference to Engerer.

The European Parliament Elections Act makes no reference to such a scenario, however Article 55 of the General Elections Act stipulates that “a candidate may, at any time until the ballot papers for the district he is contesting have started to be printed in terms of article 49, withdraw his candidature by giving notice to the Commission to that effect.”