ADPD demands embassy voting as KM Malta adds more election flights

KM Malta Airlines has added extra flights from London Gatwick and Brussels after booking more than 1,000 return passengers for election travel within the first two days of opening reservations — roughly 90% of them originating from those two cities. Additional Gatwick departures are scheduled for 20, 21, 22, 24, and 31 May; extra Brussels flights will run on 21, 22, and 25 May.

The capacity boost is aimed at voters travelling for early voting on 23 May and those returning home shortly afterwards, ahead of Election Day on 30 May. The subsidised return fare is €90, but bookings are available only through a dedicated telephone call centre. Some voters have had to make dozens of attempts to get through; at least one person placed 44 calls before securing a ticket.

ADPD – The Green Party has used the booking surge to renew its demand for embassy or electronic voting for Maltese citizens abroad. Luke Caruana, ADPD candidate for districts 12 and 13, said reports were once again emerging of citizens living overseas facing serious difficulties booking flights home solely to cast a ballot. Sandra Gauci, the party's chairperson and candidate for districts 6 and 12, called the government's continued reliance on what she described as antiquated voting procedures "preposterous", arguing they place unnecessary strain on flight capacity during peak travel season.

The party dismissed the subsidised flight scheme as the bare minimum and questioned its financial sustainability. 9 million — 22% of the entire election budget — at an estimated true cost of around €852 per passenger. Malta is one of only four EU member states that offer no form of remote voting for citizens abroad, alongside Czechia, Ireland, and Slovakia.

The other 23 have introduced some combination of postal, embassy, or electronic voting. ADPD attributes the absence of reform to mutual distrust between the Labour and Nationalist parties, both of which, it argues, have a stake in keeping the current system intact. The Nationalist Party has previously said it is open to embassy voting, but only once the Electoral Commission has been made genuinely independent from the government of the day.