How to register for local elections in Malta: the 2026 expat guide

Short answer

Registration is not a separate errand at a government office. It happens with your identity document.

When you apply for your eIdentity Card or eResidence Card, you are given a form to register as a voter — and you are asked, at the same time, whether you want to vote in Malta or at home for the European Parliament.

Most expats who think they are not registered have simply never checked. Before you do anything else, check whether you are already on the register. It takes two minutes.

If you are an EU citizen or a British national ordinarily resident in Malta, aged 16 or over, and holding a valid Maltese identity or eResidence card, you are eligible for the Local Councils Electoral Register.

If you are not yet sure whether you are eligible at all, start with Can expats vote in Malta?

Who can register

In every case you must be officially resident in Malta and hold a valid Maltese identity card or eResidence card. The card is not optional: the Electoral Office needs it, including the photograph on it, before you can be registered.

🇬🇧 A note for British nationals

If you are British and assumed Brexit ended your vote in Malta, check before you assume.

British nationals registered in the Local Councils Electoral Register are entitled to vote in local council elections — and to stand as candidates. The Electoral Commission lists eligible local-council candidates as "any EU citizen or a national of the UK registered as an elector in the Local Councils Electoral Register."

The right is historical: British citizens could already vote and stand in Maltese local council elections between 1993 and 2003 — before Malta joined the EU. It was never withdrawn.

British nationals cannot vote in European Parliament or general elections.

Check your registration (below), and if anything is unclear about your own situation, use the official Electoral Office contact details in this guide — they will confirm your status directly.

Step 1 — Check whether you are already registered

Do this first. Many expats fill in a form they did not need, or assume they have no vote when they already do.

Three official ways to check:

1. Online — the Electoral Commission's voter check at electoral.gov.mt. You will need your Malta identity card or eResidence card number, your surname, and your date of birth.
2. By phone — use the official Electoral Office phone number in the contact block below, quoting your ID or eResidence card number.
3. In person — the Electoral Register can be viewed at the Electoral Office, and each locality's register is also held at its local council office and its district police station.

If your name is there: you are registered. Just confirm the locality matches your current address — see below.

If it is not: go to Step 2.

Step 2 — Register

There are two situations. Find yours.

🅰️ You are applying for your residence card now

You do not need to do anything separately. Registration is built into the process.

When you complete your application for the eResidence Card (EU nationals) or eIdentity Card, you are given a form to be registered as a voter in the Local Councils Electoral Register. You are also asked whether you want to be registered in the European Union Electoral Register to vote for Malta's MEPs.

⚠️ Read that second question carefully before you answer it. See the warning below — it is the most consequential box on the form, and the one people tick without thinking.

Residence card applications are handled by Identità (the Expatriates Unit). Check their website for the current office location and appointment process.

🅱️ You already have your card, but you are not on the register

The Electoral Commission publishes the registration form for download on its website.

Once completed and signed, you can submit it in any of these ways — all free of charge:

• 📮 By free post to the Electoral Commission, Evans Building, Merchant Street, Valletta.
• 🏛️ In person at your local council office.
• 👮 In person at any police station.

💡 This is the part almost nobody knows. Local councils and the police are required by electoral law to accept your form, pass it to the Electoral Commission free of charge, and give you a receipt. You do not have to travel to Valletta, and you do not have to pay for postage. Always ask for the receipt — it is your proof of submission.

For the current form and any question about your own circumstances, use the official Electoral Office contact block at the end of this guide.

⚠️ The one box that costs you your vote back home

On the registration form, EU citizens are asked whether they want to vote in Malta for the European Parliament, or in their home country.

If you choose Malta, you are renouncing your right to vote in that same election in your home country. The Electoral Commission notifies the electoral authority in your home member state, so that you cannot vote twice.

This is not paperwork. It is a real choice, and many people make it without noticing.

• Choose Malta if this is where your life is — your MEPs should represent where you actually live.
• Choose your home country if you keep strong political ties there.

Note that this applies only to the European Parliament election. Your right to vote in local council elections in Malta is not affected either way, and you do not give up anything at home by registering for it.

Changed your mind? You can switch. Fill in the form again and submit it by the same routes above.

Step 3 — Deadlines

The Electoral Register is revised and published twice a year: in April and October.

To be safe, submit your form:

• before 31 March, or
• before 30 September

Applications submitted after a cut-off are carried into the next revision — not lost, but not in time for anything that happens before then.

Around a called election, a rolling register is published within five days of the writ or notice, and separate legal deadlines apply for appeals. These change every cycle. Always check electoral.gov.mt for the current dates rather than relying on any guide — including this one.

Step 4 — Keep your address current

Your registration follows the address on your card, not your actual front door.

The Electoral Register is updated whenever you apply to change the address on your eIdentity Card or eResidence Card. So if you move:

Update your card with Identità. That is all you need to do — the register follows automatically.

If you don't, you stay registered in your old locality, and your voting document is delivered to your old address.

You can only be registered once, at your ordinary residence — your main residential address.

What happens after you are registered

• Ahead of polling day, a voting document is delivered to the address on your card, by a police officer.
• If nobody is home, you can collect it from the police station or local council of the locality where you are registered, on presentation of your identity document. Later, you can collect it from the Electoral Commission's office directly (or, in Gozo, the Electoral Office in Rabat).
• You must collect it yourself. Nobody can collect it on your behalf.
• On polling day, you hand the voting document to the officials at the polling station shown on it. Polling stations are open 07:00 to 22:00. No voting document, no vote.
• Malta uses the Single Transferable Vote (STV): you rank candidates in order of preference rather than choosing one.
• Voting in Malta is not compulsory.

If you believe you have been wrongly left off the register

You have a formal right of appeal, and it costs nothing.

If you have all the qualifications to be registered but your name is not on the published register, you can lodge an appeal with the Revising Officer for inclusion, by submitting the completed and signed form to the Registrar's office at the Law Courts, Valletta (or, for Gozo residents, at the Law Courts in Rabat, Gozo).

There are no fees. Appeals must be lodged within the period set by law after each publication of the register — the deadlines change each cycle, so check electoral.gov.mt or use the contact form on the Electoral Commission website for the current date.

Can I stand as a candidate, not just vote?

Yes. If you are an EU citizen or a British national registered in the Local Councils Electoral Register, you can stand as a candidate in local council elections.

You can stand from the age of 16. To serve as Mayor or Deputy Mayor, you must be over 18.

Note that in Malta you do not vote directly for the mayor: you elect councillors, and the mayor is determined from among them.

Nomination has its own process and deadlines, set by the Electoral Commission for each cycle. Thinking about standing? Get in touch with us — we would like to hear from you, and we can point you to the right people.

What ExpatVoice is doing

We are planning an Expat Electoral Registration Day — a practical, non-partisan session to help people check their registration and complete the process together, with the forms in hand.

Sign up and we will tell you when the date is confirmed.

And if you hit a wall — a form refused, a council that won't take it, a register entry that is wrong — tell us about it. Your report is encrypted in your browser; we cannot read it without a key that exists on no server, and we never publish anyone's personal data. Patterns are what we are looking for, and patterns are what change things.

Sources — check for yourself

• Electoral Commission of Malta — Frequently Asked Questions — the three registers, eligibility, how registration works via the eID/eResidence card, checking your entry, appeals to the Revising Officer.
• Electoral Commission of Malta — European Elections and Local Councils — the EU registration form, submitting via local councils and police stations, delivery of voting documents.
• Electoral Commission of Malta — Who can contest an election — candidacy for EU citizens and UK nationals in local council elections.
• Electoral Commission of Malta — Elections — the historical basis of British nationals' local voting rights.
• Identità — residence documentation and the eResidence Card.
• Chapter 363, Local Councils Act — local council elections and voter eligibility.
• Chapter 354, General Elections Act — the electoral framework and the register.
• Directive 94/80/EC — EU rules on local voting rights for EU citizens resident in another member state.

Talk to the Electoral Office directly

They are the definitive answer for your own situation, and they respond quickly.

📞 2558 3000
🌐 electoral.gov.mt — contact form on their website
📍 Evans Building, Merchant Street, Valletta

Corrections

Found an error in this guide? Tell us: hello@expatvoice.mt — we investigate every correction request and fix confirmed errors within 7 days. See our Editorial & Accuracy Policy.

Disclaimer: This guide is a plain-English summary for expats in Malta. It is not legal advice. Electoral rules, forms and deadlines can change. Always confirm your own situation with the Electoral Commission of Malta before acting.